Lake Koshkonong Dredging Update V

 I was on site yesterday around midday and have talked with Kevin at Badgerland this morning. The dredging is somewhere between one quarter and one third accomplished. Badgerland will work Saturday, Monday and probably Tuesday to finish the dredging. They will then shape the dredge fill area and make final adjustments to the stone berm as they finish up the fill area. As we discussed, we are slightly over dredging the area, but we need to be careful not to have so much fill that it extends above the berm crest. We anticipate that the fill – and probably the berm also – will settle over the next several months. I anticipate that Badgerland will be nearly complete with their work by March 4 or 5. We have a tentative date for topographic survey of the dredge area and the fill area of March 7.

Travis Schroeder of the DNR has stopped out to the site regularly, and has no problems with the project as it is proceeding. We've not heard from either the Corps of Engineers or Jefferson County regarding erosion control or other permit compliance issues, although we have been copying them with our erosion control reports. We will check with the archaeological consultant to determine whether or not a final on-site visit from them is necessary.

Kevin from Badgerland told us that one of the haul truck drivers got a ticket from Jefferson County for overweight truck, I told Kevin and he agreed that somebody at the quarry just wasn't paying attention and paying the ticket is neither Badgerland's nor RKLD’s responsibility. We have not seen the Town of Sumner monitoring the project since we stopped hauling stone in.

Many people have stopped by to just observe what's going on, and we have handed out many copies of the double-sided project information sheet. The two main comments are "were really glad to see something happening on the Lake", to which we make sure that folks know that this is RKLKD’s effort, and "aren't you afraid that this dredge area will fill in?", to which our reply is "that's why we’re calling this an experimental project – we will be monitoring the dredge area for sediment movement to help us plan how we can proceed with additional projects".