Adopt ordinance to help Lake Mallalieu
This letter to the editor, by Paul Hambleton, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on November 28, 2024.
People who use Lake Mallalieu's public waters and people living in the households along Lake Mallalieu's shores in the City of Hudson, Village of North Hudson, and Town of Hudson all want better water quality in Lake Mallalieu.
Lake Mallalieu now has poor water quality, with excess phosphorous and nitrogen, low clarity, and frequent algae blooms.
The water quality of Lake Mallalieu is almost entirely determined by the quality of water inflowing from the Willow River. Lake Mallalieu is the last impoundment of the 70-mile-long Willow River, with its 182,000-acre watershed dominated by agricultural land uses, before the waters flow on into the St. Croix River.
The Willow River's water quality is impaired by runoff from fields that carries phosphorous, nitrogen, and sediment. Phosphorous and nitrogen in runoff to the Willow River feeds algae blooms in Lake Mallalieu.
The Willow River's watershed includes thousands of acres of fields on which manure from several concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) is spread. For example, recently a dairy CAFO within the watershed was permitted to expand up to 4,620 animal units, which are estimated to produce approximately 42.2 million gallons of liquid manure/process wastewater and 11,378 tons of solid manure per year, and plans are to spread all that manure on about 5,000 acres.
St. Croix County's proposed "Manure Storage Facilities" ordinance would better protect the water quality of the Willow River and Lake Mallalieu from the negative effects of field-spreading CAFO-generated manure. For example, an important provision would require the Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) for a new or expanded manure storage facility within the Willow River watershed to demonstrate either a reduction of or no increase in sediment and phosphorous delivery to impaired or exceptional resource waters, and to also demonstrate either a reduction of or no increase in total nitrogen and phosphorous applied to lands in the NMP.
If you want better water quality in Lake Mallalieu, then support adoption of the proposed "Manure Storage Facilities" ordinance by our St. Croix County Board of Supervisors. And ask other folks to support its adoption, too. We all want clean water.
