Carping about water quality

Star Tribune Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:29:11 CST
In Twin Cities suburbs, all lakes are not created equal

With thousands of small suburban lakes collecting runoff and no one managing them day-to-day, clean water is an elusive and sometimes impractical goal....Many residents who live on shallow suburban lakes, even ones dug by developers as storm water collectors, want the Minnesota ideal: clear water and an open shore, just like the big lakes up North. But unless a lake is fairly deep and protected from storm water, it's almost certainly not going to happen, experts say. "Minnesotans love their lakes," said Kevin Bigalke, administrator for the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District, which includes Cornelia. "The mindset is that all lakes are equal, and they're not. These shallow lakes function very differently from lakes such as Mille Lacs." Bob Kojetin, a 50-year Edina resident who is the city's retired parks and recreation director and a member of the Nine Mile District board, said Cornelia hasn't changed much in decades. "You're never going to get the lakes the way people want them to be," he said. "We can try to work toward clean water standards ... and keep noxious weeds out." But taking conditions back to when Edina was a farming community, he said, is "almost impossible." Many metro-area lakes share Cornelia's water quality problems. In 2006, lakes that were on the Met Council's "Worst-Ten List" included George Watch in Lino Lakes, Colby in Woodbury, Loon in Stillwater Township, Cedar Island in Maple Grove, Hazeltine in Chaska, Upper Twin in Crystal and Eagle Point in Lake Elmo.

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