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Comments to GLWMO Board by Len Ferrington on 22 September 2011 <br />I would like to thank the Board for this opportunity to comment on the potential "no wake, no <br />motorized watercraft" clauses that are being considered for possible inclusion in the Third Generation <br />Ten -Year Watershed Management Plan. As written, the clauses are obviously controversial, have served <br />to arouse very passionate feeling both for and against their inclusion, and are clearly objected to by a <br />wide range of stakeholders, as evidenced by the large number of persons signing an (petition against <br />them. They also have strong potential to produce unanticipated recreational, esthetic and economic <br />consequences. <br />As a scientist working in areas of water quality assessment and management, I am aware of the <br />scientific literature related to the role that disturbance of lake bottom sediments may have in terms of <br />phosphorus dynamics in lakes. The literature provides several conflicting studies of the extent to which <br />re- suspension may liberate phosphorus, and some of the studies are very context specific and may or <br />may not be generalizable to conditions that exist within lakes of the GLWMO. However, my intention in <br />presenting these comments to the Board is not intended to provide a view or judgment as to the <br />scientific merits of past studies, but rather to summarize other management options that have been <br />discussed and /or recommended by past studies, and are available to the Board for possible <br />implementation to reduce phosphorus loadings in Lake Owasso. I would also like to provide my views of <br />a temporal sequence for implementation of management options over the next decade, and to <br />emphasize the necessity to do "a posteriori" evaluations for the impact of the implementation activities. <br />The implementation activities available for reducing loading of phosphorus in Lake Owasso are (1) CIP in <br />areas deemed to contribute the highest loads of phosphorus from the surrounding terrestrial landscape, <br />(2) better enforcement of existing no -wake ordinances. (3) reduction and control of invasive weed <br />species, in particular curly -leaf pondweed, with whole lake eradication techniques recently promoted in <br />an experimental program by the MN DNR, (4) program to reduce carp populations via removal of large <br />individuals and possibly developing targeted fishing programs for the public (5) possible alum <br />treatments, and (6) consideration of hypolimnetic aeration. It is my recommendation that these <br />activities should be considered for implementation in the priority sequence listed above, with <br />simultaneous, or nearly simultaneous, implementation of activities 1 and 2, implementation of activities <br />3 and 4 as soon as realistic, and only moving to possible implementation of activities 5 and 6 if activities <br />1 -4 do not produce the desired results. After each implementation activity there should be a 1 or 2 year <br />evaluation of their effect on SRP during summer months. <br />CIP in areas deemed to contribute the highest external loading will require at least 2 -3 years to plan and <br />implement on a scale large enough to have measurable results. These activities, followed by two years <br />of assessment of storm water run -off quality, mean that as much as five years may have to pass before <br />we can realistically measure the effectiveness of CIP. Combined with better enforcement of current no- <br />wake ordinances, we could see reductions in SRP that are measurable in terms of Secchi disc readings, <br />Chl -a and TP by 2014 or 2015. <br />During the time that the CIP emphasis is starting and expanding, however, the Board should make <br />concerted efforts to obtain funding and permission to initiate a comprehensive, whole -lake reduction <br />and control program for invasive species of aquatic plants. Currently, the recommended duration of this <br />type of program is 4 -5 years, based on the biology of reproduction of curley -leaf pondweed. If this <br />program could be implemented as early as 2013, its effectiveness could be evaluated starting in 2017 or <br />