State considering new rules for lake shorelines

(Published Wednesday, August 3, 2005)

By Sue Yanny
Gazette Staff

DELAVAN-People who owned property on Wisconsin lakes used to build quaint little cabins with paths that ran down to the water.

They now build large year-round homes with big manicured lawns.

Shoreland development has changed, and so, too, must the rules that govern it.

That was the message from Department of Natural Resources officials during a public hearing Tuesday at Lake Lawn Resort in Delavan to get feedback about the revised shoreland protection program.

About 100 people attended the hearing in a conference room overlooking the shimmering blue waters of Delavan Lake.
The DNR adopted the shoreland protection program 35 years ago, said Toni Herkert, shoreland management team leader for the Bureau of Watershed Management.

It contains statewide minimum standards for shoreland development that are designed to protect water quality, fish and wildlife habitat and natural scenic beauty along lakes and rivers, she said.

The DNR decided to revise the rules because they no longer apply to much of the development, Herkert said.

The rules are no longer adequate to prevent water pollution, shoreline erosion and the loss of fish and wildlife habitat, she said.

"We're not here saying development is a bad thing," she said. "We're saying development is changing-and we have to compensate for that."

A large house built on the shores of a lake dumps 700 times more phosphorous into the lake than undeveloped land, said Russ Rasmussen, director of the Bureau of Watershed Management. It also dumps 18 times more sediment, he said.

"The water quality in our lakes is deteriorating, for the most part, "he said. "This is what we're trying to address with these new rules."

Most people spoke in favor of the revisions.

Several opposed some changes, however.

Steve Musinsky lives on Pike Lake in Washington County.

He said he supported the new rules in general but opposed provisions that might put burden shoreland homeowners.

"Basically, we're the ones footing the bill for this," he said.

Kevin MacKinnon, who is administrator for the Delavan Lake Sanitary District, said Delavan Lake looks nice, but it did not always look that way.

The sanitary district spent about $25 million to build the sewer system, MacKinnon said.

The Walworth County Metropolitan Sewer District then spent $25 million to build an interceptor and treatment plant, he said.

The town, sanitary district and other governments then spent about $7 million to rehabilitate the lake, he said.

"That's the cost to clean up a lake when the shoreland protection program was not in place," he said.

Walworth County Supervisor Dorothy Burwell said she used to guess at how Delavan Lake affected the area's economy.

She said she knows now because of a study that was recently conducted by the Delavan Lake Improvement Association and UW-Whitewater.

"You may be surprised, as many of us were, how high the dollar figures are," she said. "The impact not only is on local and county revenue, but state revenue, as well. We cannot afford to do anything but have strong environmental rules to protect our lakes, rivers and streams."

The study found that Delavan Lake has contributed $77 million annually to the area economy since it was refurbished in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Freedom requires responsibility, Burwell said.

"We can be free to do what we wish with our land, but we must ever be mindful of how our actions affect those we share the land with," she said.