By Jason Nolan
The level of Lake Minnetonka was 925.74 feet above sea level this April. In May of 1986 it was 930.4 feet above sea level. Due to the drought, the lake level has dropped greatly in the last four years. Because of this drop, many lake businesses have suffered, and lakeshore homeowners have had to extend their docks and beaches. Even though April’s precipitation was 2.3 inches above average, the lake level did not rise much. This is because the ground is very dry and soaked up most of the rain before it could run off into the lake.
Lakeshore homeowners want to take nature into their own hands and raise the lake level. A group of them have proposed that Hennepin County tap some wells that have lain dormant since the 1930’s to pump 5 billion gallons of groundwater into the lake annually. This action, they contend, would raise the lake to normal levels, keep property values from dropping, improve the business of lakeside marinas, restaurants and bars, improve the fish and vegetation of the lake, and make everybody, especially these homeowners, happy.
Their idea does not seem to be going over too well with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District who has control of, the wells. This agency and others say that there is not enough information available to justify tapping these wells. Some evidence shows that if the drought continues, the water would all evaporate anyway. These wells all would draw off the underground Jordon aquifer which provides drinkable water for 14 cities surrounding Lake Minnetonka.
It just does not seem like an intelligent idea to use drinking water to fill Lake Minnetonka so wealthy property owners can have more water to pollute with boat exhaust. Lakes and weather all go through cycles. We’re in a dry one now. Leave the lake alone, treat it with care and it will come back. If this is the greenhouse effect and not just a drought, then the groundwater is necessary for greater purposes than filling a lake for recreational and economic purposes. The ground water is more important in any case.