SLOW NO WAKE ORDER Posted

Rock County Sheriff's Office posts slow/no-wake on Rock River

By Gazette staff

March 31, 2014

JANESVILLE--The Rock County Sheriff's Office has announced that the northern and central portions of the Rock River are under slow/no-wake restrictions.

U.S. Geological Survey gauges show water levels on Lake Koshkonong were at 8.16 feet Monday, and the river level at Afton was 6.79 feet.

A county ordinance requires slow/no-wake to be set on the northern part of the river when water levels exceed 8 feet at Lake Koshkonong and at the central part of the river when waters exceed 6.5 feet at Afton.

Sheriff's deputies will begin placing slow/no-wake signs along the river at all public access points between the south end of Lake Koshkonong and the Beloit-Rock Townline Road bridge. The restrictions will remain in effect until the sheriff's office lifts them.

There is no slow/no-wake posting for southern portion of the Rock River between the Townline Road bridge and the state line. The county ordinance only requires slow/no-wake postings south of the Townline Road bridge when waters reach 8.5 feet at Afton.

Lake Koshkonong itself does not fall under the slow/no-wake orders.

Thankful that it is NOT Slow No Wake out there….

Thanks Tom! ALL GATES 100% OPEN

Brian
its good to see that everything is operable [gates and wickets] at indianford as we are well aware of what can occur this time of year on our lake.
thanks 
tom voskuil

NEW SLOW NO WAKE ORDINANCE In EFFECT

Today, the official lake level is at 777.49 and will cross the 7.50 threshold before the end of the day.

This is significant because under the OLD Rock County slow-no wake ordinance, the county with support from the Chairman of the Fulton Town Board, would have closed full speed navigation on the Rock River.

Yep, Slow No Wake would have been issued, and the UW Crew Team and their support boats would have been kicked-off the water.

And fishing boats - because under the OLD ordinance, SNW would be in effect now, yet by observing the shorelines, most everyone would never assume SNW would be imposed at this water level.

Today, fishing boats can get up, plane-off, pushing a smaller wake than the wakes they pushed if SNW was in effect today.

It is a shame RKLD had to spend the money we did to demonstrate shoreline water levels, pay legal fees to attorneys to sit and wait to speak to the county board, pay engineer firms to produce maps illustrating how the OLD county ordinance was punitive.

We even had to prove the claims made by the sanitation district's (CKSD) engineers were wrong when they testified a higher trigger for the SNW order would "flood" their pumping stations located near the lake.

If CKSD/Strand knew those claims to be false at the time, they should have been terminated, and if they believed their own claims, then they are not qualified as engineers and should have been terminated.

Strong words perhaps - but take a look at your shoreline today and through next week, and tell me if your property is inundated.  

Drive past those CKSD pumping stations and see if you can find where the lake or river has breached so far that water is approaching those structures.

The amount of money RKLD must spend to defend against the ridiculous and to promote the logical prevents us from reinvesting those resources into the habitat.

Happy fishin - Koshkonong Walleyes will be feasting soon.

YES - ALL GATES ARE 100% OPEN

Time of year for the questions to start all over again…..

How Cold Was It...

How "bout a Meeting to Say LKWA Had No Science, No Data, No Justification to fight 7.2 inches??

Badger Crew Team Back In Town

Cow Manure Hurting Water Quality

To our friends in Jefferson and Rock Counties!

Another manure release event in Dane County and a legal challenge to a DNR permit issued to a CAFO in Kewaunee County to conduct aerial spray irrigation of livestock manure. 

I've also attached a March 2013 letter from the Wisconsin office of the American Lung Association regarding the manure irrigation project.

And I just learned that CAFO advocates in Brown County are "whispering" with the Oneida Tribe about wonderful job opportunities from expanding manure spreading fields onto reservation lands.

The push by the agricultural industry and farm lobby to expand delivery of livestock manure to our rural land, water and air resources is relentless and I fear this problem is headed our way, environmental and public health be damned.

Sincerely,

Greg Farnham, Commissioner

Lake Sinissippi Improvement District

Hustisford, Wisconsin (Dodge County)

920 296-8771

www.lakesinissippi.org

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: greg farnham <waterdown@wildblue.net

Another uncontrolled manure release event.  Safe manure handling practices continue to be a bridge too far for CAFO owners and proponents, notwithstanding protestations by the agricultural industry and farm lobby to the contrary.

I'm concerned that Dodge County appears to demonstrate a caveat emptor attitude towards this issue.

The Land Conservation Committee last fall turned back an attempt to establish a county ordinance to enforce state law prohibiting winter spreading of manure next to lakes, rivers, streams and private wells.  County farmers and our own Land Conservation Department claimed that it was unnecessary to enforce the law.

And it appears the county still does not have a program to evaluate ground water protection despite the fact that the 2012 county land and water plan says that it does.  My February 5th letter to you remains unanswered.

I believe that the livestock manure contamination mess in Kewaunee County is headed our way, and I fear that our county is not going to be prepared to effectively protect our land and water resources and the health of our residents.

I hope our county departments with responsibilities in these matters don't rest on their laurels after having organized a water quality forum in February.  I encourage our county leaders to visit Kewaunee County, tour the spreading fields and talk with the community residents who are affected by CAFO manure.  The place to start is at Kewaunee Cares:   http://kewauneecares.wordpress.com/

Greg Farnham

Broken pipe releases manure at digester site

News Release Published: March 12, 2014 by the South Central Region

Contact(s): David Mosher, 608-275-3321 Bob Manwell, DNR communications, 608-275-3317

WAUNAKEE, Wis. - An estimated 35,000 gallons of manure spilled from a broken pipe at the community manure digesting facility north of Waunakee during the early morning hours of March 12. The break was discovered by an employee of Clear Horizons, LLC, operators of the facility.

With the Melt - Lake Level rises

March 1st = 775.84

Today = 776.6 (OVER DNR SUMMER MAX)

Increase of 9.12 inches

Comparing Lake Levels

TODAY - 775.83
2013 - 776.84 (a foot HIGHER last year)
2012 - 776.81
2010 - 776.34
2009 - 778.1 (2+ FEET higher than today)
2008 - 777.82


In EVERY example, the gates, ALL gates were, and HAD BEEN, 100% WIDE OPEN.

Funny how Mother Nature works, eh?

Winter had most days at or below zero--ever

It seems that weather rankings are in the eye of the beholder.

The National Weather Service has gauged this season’s chills, in part, by noting the number of days with subzero temperatures from the start of November through the end of February. By that measure, the allegedly just-ended season had the fourth-most days with the mercury below zero.

But add in days when the temperature sunk to exactly zero, and suddenly, this season is Chicago’s new No. 1.

“It looks like overall this winter has had the most zero or below,” said weather service meteorologist Richard Castro. “So it’s not just perception that it’s felt particularly brutal this year. The numbers say it.”

Monday morning’s low of minus-2 degrees puts Chicago in fourth place by the narrower measurement.

Reframing the numbers to get to a No. 1 requires the addition of three days when the city’s low temperature was right at zero, making for 26 total when it was that cold or colder. The previous record-holding season, 1884-85, had 25 subzero days and none right at zero.

Castro said temperatures likely will not reach zero or below again this season, as the nights are getting shorter and the Earth tilts toward the sun. However, this season’s overall severity could still worsen when considering cold along with snow, Castro said.

“The combination for the two is definitely the most severe winter since the ’70s,” Castro said.

Chicago’s 73.4 inches of snow so far this season, which the weather service counts as autumn through spring, stands at the fourth-most since 1884. That’s slightly less than during 1969-70, which saw 77 inches. The only two years above those were in 1977-78 at 82.3 inches, and in 1978-79 at 89.7 inches total.

However, the weather service predicts more snow will hit Chicago on Tuesday night and possibly over the weekend, Castro said. That could push the city’s snowfall total into second place, Castro said.

“We’re within 10 inches of second place,” Castro said, “So if we can get some snow out of these next couple of events ... you can’t rule it out. And it doesn’t really look like we’re going to break out into another much warmer pattern any time soon.”

As far as average temperatures go, Chicago is at its third-coldest season on record, at 18.8 degrees for “meteorological winter,” or December through February. But widen the time frame to include November and March, Castro said, and who knows how cold the season would be.

“November through March periods would be something to look at this year to compare to previous seasons,” Castro said. “We’ve never done that before. We’ve never had to. Meteorological seasons stood for themselves.”