The first carp barrier has been installed in the Cedar, Albion, Henshaw and Swartout lakes project. With ice out and spring waters starting to flow, Clearwater River Watershed District workers have installed the first carp barrier at the outlet of Swartout Lake, and in about a week another is planned to be placed near Highway 55 just north of Cedar Lake. “The fish barrier was finished today,” CRWD engineer Norm Wenck said at the watershed’s regular meeting Wednesday, April 11. “It swings up to allow debris to flow through, and then it can be closed and locked.” The cost of the barrier was $1,500, which is way under previous estimates, Wenck said. “We thought they could cost up to $10,000 each.” Wenck added that carp harvesting could begin on Swartout soon. “This week the commercial fisherman will be looking for a place to dock his boats,” Wenck said. “He’ll begin seining carp in open water.” At their December regular meeting, the board ordered the removal of a minimum of 40,000 pounds of carp this year and 10,000 pounds every year after. Carp root up the bottom of the lake and are a major contributor to the lakes’ pollution. Cedar Lake gets about three times more phosphorus than it should from the upstream lakes, officials say. The board on Nov. 8 approved a $325,000 plan to clean up the lakes. It features upper watershed best management practices, including carp migration barriers, physical carp harvesting, three sediment basins, buffering of drain tile inlets and ditches, and drain tile inlet replacement. The plan also includes three years of baseline monitoring in the upper watershed and on Cedar Lake. The plan is expected to remove 800 pounds of phosphorus yearly from Cedar Lake inflows and result in an average summer total phosphorus concentration of 30 parts per million in Cedar Lake. The plan outlines several stages: • The first is to install fish barriers to prevent upstream migration of carp at the Cedar Lake inlet of Highway 55, the Swartout Lake outlet at County Road 6, and the Henshaw Lake outlet. • Second, carp should be harvested from the lake in the winter. This will become an annual event if there are not natural fish kills caused by freeze-out. • Third, in 2007-2008 sedimentation basins upstream of Swartout Lake will be constructed to filter out phosphorus from entering the lake. • Fourth, from 2007 to 2009, the drainage ditch to Swartout Lake that crosses County Road 37, would get buffer zones of grass and vegetation to filter out contaminants from rain run-off. • Fifth, a baseline monitoring program during the spring and summer of 2007 would test phosphorus outflow at the Cedar lake inlet near Highway 55 and in upper watershed lakes.
