By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A major step toward reviving Lake Contrary will be taken next week.
The Buchanan County Commission has authorized the use of a specialized aquatic herbicide to get rid of the weeds which have overtaken the lake located just outside St. Joseph.
Western District Commissioner, Ron Hook, says the vegetation must be removed before the silt that has settled on the lake can be removed.
“Spray it – the whole 320 acres of lake – kill it all off and hopefully have a clear lake bottom to where we can go ahead and do our test plots with the Corps of Engineers and begin dredging,” Hook says.
Spraying will take place Monday and Tuesday. A helicopter will be used in the spaying. Area residents have been notified.
Hook says the county still needs a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before it can dredge the lake. Hook says the Corps wants the county to test a plot before it authorizes dredging.
Dredging will take three years at an estimated cost of $6-to-8 million.
Hook says the county commission isn’t interested in restoring Lake Contrary to its glory days.
“We’re not trying to put it back to that,” according to Hook. “We just want it back to where people can go down locally fish, run a jet ski, do some skiing with a boat, pontoon around, swim at the beach; just normal, recreational fun.”
Hook says restoring Lake Contrary will bring back a recreational lake, but also benefit efforts to reduce Missouri River flooding.
“It’s not only just for recreation,” Hook says. “It’s for water management and river management and the protection for the levees.”
DNR has installed 34 relief wells at Lake Contrary to ease pressure on the Missouri River levees.
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