Lake Water Quality

Protecting and preserving the quality of the lake water and the beach environment is paramount.  This is in everyone’s interest including:  those that live on the beach, use the beach and visit the beach.  The township needs to ensure that an attempt to solve one problem, doesn’t create another, larger and irreversible problem in the lake and beach environment.

The township should also ensure that they don’t impose unnecessary costs of new sewer construction on Bruce Beach and Highland Drive property owners that could last for years to come, without first implementing lower cost prevention, containment and infiltration measures.  

The website states that the study “…includes determining the root cause of the drainage issues…”, but there has not been any documentation of what the root cause is.  Where exactly is the water that is causing the ponding coming from and why has it increased?   What sources have been identified and capped?  Since the ground is mostly sand, has infiltration been obstructed with groundcover such as bark chips from tree cutting or with other materials?  The consultant’s survey of exactly where the water is coming from, along with quantity and timing of flow should be made public so that the sources can be addressed.

One example from a couple of years ago:  upon seeing water ponding on the east side of Bruce Beach Rd just south of the sewer discharge pipe at the southeast corner of Bruce Beach Rd, and Highland Drive, I checked the catch-basin on the upper north section of Highland Drive and saw a steady stream of water flowing into the catch-basin.  It was a dry day, and it wasn’t spring.  Clearly this one stream was causing minor ponding in the ditch along Bruce Beach Rd.  This is an example of one of the sources that need to be identified and stopped before a costly solution such as construction of a new sewer line is considered.  

There has always been historical ponding on land alongside of Bruce Beach Rd.  In fact, one of these ponds had been given a name many years ago, as it routinely appeared and then disappeared as seasons changed.  The problem may not even be the ponding, but rather that the road is impassable at times.  The solution may lie in ensuring that the road and driveways are passable, until the water naturally dissipates.  The cost of doing so, including providing financial assistance to private landowners to do so, would likely be a lot less than constructing a new storm sewer system running to the lake.

Best management practices in reducing stormwater pollution include elimination at source, detention, retention and infiltration.  It seems premature to consider the options presented without more work on identifying the sources and causes.  The options presented are a bit confusing, in that, some options address some issues, and not others. Generally, options that prioritize eliminating the water at its’ source, creating retention areas and maximizing infiltration through the soil should be pursued before constructing new sewers which drain to the lake.  

Every beach user and property owner would be adversely impacted if new sewers cause lake water quality problems and damage beach areas.

Al

Cottage 136