Wacouta Bay is Next 8/21/23

Last week I heard a rumor that Wacouta Bay was included in the upper P4 project after being told by the COE it was excluded. Turns out it was excluded from that project but is still moving forward.

“The other authority (EDIT: that will be used for Wacouta Bay dredging) that has come online is the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP). It was authorized many years ago, but Congress has just recently started funding it. If is continues like this, we will be building even more restoration projects on the river than we have in the past.

Steven Clark COE”

I don’t have any idea what the “restoration” will look like at this time.

What Is The NESP? LINK

Turns out the meeting is tonight and will be live on Youtube.

The Wacouta Bay land owners should be pretty happy about this.

Looks like a win/win/win for the land owners/the Corp/fish and wildlife. Just under $14M.

That bay has been like that forever.
So the plan is spend 14 million to fix up the shoreline and create a deep hole in the middle?
Won’t the hole just fill in next spring or the first high water?
And the shoreline will revert to previous state not long after it’s redone?
I must be missing something to spend that kind of money on this project?

BK – What are your thoughts?

haleysgold wrote:

BK – What are your thoughts?

My thoughts are that it doesn’t really matter what I think…but I will say this.

The river side bank of the bay will be extended to help keep the sediment from the river making an eddie in the bay and dropping it’s load of muck and sand (as much). The plan is for this to last 50 years not counting incidental maintenance.

The Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance was started over 10 years ago by the Wacouta Bay land owners to have the Corp dredge the bay for their boats. They are getting what they wanted but not without a river full of work to get here.

Now you might think that I don’t think much of the LPLA. Not true! If ANYONE can change the sedimentation from the two dirt rivers up stream, they can. They have brought a ton of information to the public and politicians regarding the filling in of the lake (even though it seems most don’t care).

That’s my 2 cents…take it for what it’s worth.

I was at the meeting and I should add that a lot of people from wacouta showed up to the meeting and had a lot questions on this project and how it does nothing to address the lake filling in at the head of the lake, and how the corp should be more focused on shoreline stabilization and stuff like that rather then this project there working on, yes it will be nice when it’s done but I have a hard time believing it with last very long with a creek flowing into it with sediment and how there not closing off the up river side fully and they are not and cannot raise the elevation above what it currently is, so short term fish and waterfowl will like it but doesn’t seem like the best use of money. I should add that this project is not anything anyone was lobbying for, and the corp has had it on it books since the 90’s is my understanding. It was kinda like in the “que” and now there’s funding and they hit go if that makes sense?

I’d rather they save every dime and accumulate what they can to either restore upstream wetlands or even start approaching private landowners about buying back buffer areas of properties. Ag has gotten too big to think a few measly fines will change much. Maybe an inflated offer for farmers’ 5-10 acre swaths along watersheds would be the best use of funds?

This project along with the project portion towards Bay City both seem like all they will do is direct the sediment further into the lake before it drops out.

It feels like we’re trying to patch a leaky hose without first turning off the faucet.

Bucky you’re right on track, Minnesota is doing a lot better job then Wisconsin with there buffers. In my opinion they need to give incentives to farmers to put water ways in, more water shed ponds. Right now in my opinion they’re rewarded for bad behavior. More acres planted more money and incentives.

“The Clean Water Act exempts from the Section 404 program discharges associated with normal farming, ranching, and forestry activities such as plowing, cultivating, minor drainage, and harvesting for the production of food, fiber, and forest products, or upland soil and water conservation practices”