(Spirit Lake)– Velocity, volume and silt. Those were three main concerns addressed Tuesday as Spirit Lake city council members met as commissioners of Drainage District 22.
The city has jurisdiction over the district that handles drainage for a large part of southern Spirit Lake and flows south along the bike trail to behind McDonalds in Okoboji where it outlets into East Lake Okoboji. That’s where a large volume of silt could be seen dumping into the lake following a three and-a-half inch rain that fell the weekend of May 5th and 6th.
Rick Hopper, an engineer, said there could be as many as 25 sources contributing to the problem. He said in some cases silt fences had either not been properly installed or had been removed altogether.
That drew concern from councilman/commissioner Steve Balm, who said one central person needs to inspect silt fences on a regular basis to make sure they’re properly installed and maintained. But it was pointed out such a job would be very difficult for just one person with all the construction activity going on in the lakes area.
When it comes to addressing the silt issue, a motion was made and approved unanimously to replace a floating silt fence near the outlet into East Lake Okoboji at a cost not to exceed five thousand dollars and to get quotes for a floating silt fence to be installed on a detention pond near Highway 71 west of the YMCA.
A second motion was also passed unanimously directing Hopper to get more rock to protect the corner of a garage near the East Lake Okoboji outlet that’s in danger of being undermined by current going through the outlet. That cost is not to exceed four thousand dollars.
Hopper said he would look into ways to decrease the velocity of water, including the possibility of making a pond east of McDonalds deeper. He’ll report back on that along with some other options at another DD 22 meeting scheduled for Noon Friday.
