Lake Darling restoration proceeds despite cuts

    The project to renovate Lake Darling in Lake Darling State Park will continue despite expected budget cuts from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), according to DNR Regional Fisheries Supervisor Steve Waters.

    The DNR is under pressure to trim its budget for 2010, as are nearly all state entities. The Associated Press reported Monday that the state may close selected trails and beaches and even entire parks, particularly those that are seldom used. However, Waters said that renovating Lake Darling is a top priority for the DNR, so the project will proceed as planned.

    ?Having a budget shortfall is not unusual,? said Waters. ?We know that we will have to do things differently. We may have to mow less often or clean the bathrooms less but we are not going to skimp on Lake Darling.?

    Lake Darling State Park is located in the southwest corner of Washington County. The project to renovate the lake officially commenced in November of 2008. The lake was drained so that workers could fix various problems in the lake. Waters said the emergency spillway was failing, so it was removed. He said the dam that connects the lake to the spillway will also be rebuilt.

    Although the lake has completely drained once, it still collects water when it rains or snows, which creates the impression that the lake is back to normal. Waters said that the lake has recently been as much as 20 percent full from precipitation in December. He said that the water will eventually drain out, and that by 2010 the lake bottom will be hard and dry enough to drive bulldozers across it. Bulldozers are brought in to remove sediment from the lake and will also aid in rebuilding the dam.

    The effort to combat sediment buildup in the lake began long before the renovation project started in 2008, said Waters. He said the DNR and the state government have been working with local farmers for more than a decade to help them build ponds on their property. The ponds serve to trap sediment and prevent it from entering the lake. Waters said there are 24 ponds around Lake Darling to trap sediment and that half of them are on private land. He said the ponds range in size from one-tenth of an acre to three acres.

    ?We had to build those ponds before we could proceed with restoring the lake,? said Waters. ?Most of that part of the project has been completed by now.?

For the full article, see the Dec. 30 print edition of the Washington Evening Journal.