Thompson budget cuts Big Muskego Lake cleanup

The Journal staff

Muskego Gov. Tommy G. Thompson has dropped a major water cleanup project for Big Muskego Lake from his budget proposal a blow for those trying to clean up the weed- and carp-infested waters.

Officials had been planning on the two-year, $335,000 project to help clean up the watershed that includes Linnie Lac, Little and Big Muskego Lakes and Wind Lake.

The state Natural Resources Board had approved money for the Big Muskego Lake cleanup in its 1995-'97 budget proposal, said Jim Jackley, former state water resource specialist for the lake.

But the cleanup became part of $59 million in projects that Thompson cut out of the proposed $874.9 million Department of Natural Resources budget for the next two years, said Joe Polasek, budget director for the DNR. In the Worst Shape

Of the lakes in the Muskego Lake watershed, the 2,000-acre Big Muskego Lake is in the worst condition. It took the overflow from sewage settling ponds in the area before municipal sewer service was introduced in 1984.

Today, the water contains a large amount of phosphorus that contributes to weed growth and major algae blooms.

What once harbored thousands of waterfowl and provided ample good fishing is now thick with weeds and has a vastly reduced wildlife population, said Leonard Pilak, chairman of the Big Muskego Lake/Bay Bass Protection and Rehabilitation District.

The Big Muskego Lake project also was integral to cleanup of the waters of downstream Wind Lake.

About 35% of the phosphorus in Wind Lake has come from Big Muskego, according to the federally approved Wind Lake Management plan drawn up in 1987. Jackley said cleaning up Big Muskego Lake was a key to cleaning up Wind Lake.

The money for the cleanup project would have come from the state motorboat gas tax. It appears that the money wasn't diverted to another project, but is being retained as a fund balance, Polasek said.

If funding had been approved, a drawdown of Big Muskego Lake would have begun this fall to allow for the eradication of the fish population and the consolidation of sediment at the lake bottom.

Natural vegetation then would have been reintroduced, along with desirable fish and wildlife, and the lake would have been refilled in late 1996. Backers Won't Give Up

Advocates of the cleanup project, however, aren't declaring the funding doomed. Sen. Lynn Adelman (D-Town of Waterford) has written the governor asking that the money be restored.

"These two lakes have the potential to become tremendous recreational assets in the most populous part of the state," Adelman said.

He said dedicated volunteers had been working for a long time to satisfy the prerequisites for state financing of the cleanup. One of those was the construction of a public access site on the lake.

"It's really an act by the state which is unwarranted and unfair," Adelman said.

Local officials also are trying to find other funding sources, in case the state money isn't restored. Jackley said officials were trying to get money from conservation organizations as well as other state and federal funds, including grants.

The drawdown is still likely to happen, said Mark Paulet, Muskego grant administrator for the Priority Watershed Program. The aim will be to do as much as possible with whatever money is available.

The Priority Watershed Program is a cleanup program for the Muskego-Wind Lake watershed system, but one that is aimed at reducing non-point pollution. Non-point pollution is caused by runoff from such sources as fields and roads.

The Priority Watershed Program could mean up to $8 million over eight years, according to Kathy Aron, executive director for the Wind Lake Management District.

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