Protect Our Waters
This letter to the editor, by Everett Fuchs, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on June 25, 2026.
We prize our St. Croix River for its aesthetic, recreational and economic importance. We love to stroll along the Hudson waterfront. We love to wade, swim, fish, paddle and boat in its waters, too.
So I’m shocked that the Lake Mallalieu Association (LMA) now wants to draw down the Lake Mallalieu impoundment of the Willow River for nine months to allow rainstorms and snow melt to flush thousands of cubic yards of bottom muck containing thousands of pounds of phosphorus and an unknown amount of arsenic from Lake Mallalieu into our St. Croix River. They want deeper water in upper Lake Mallalieu, even though data from their consultant show water depths haven’t changed much between 1970 and now. They’re requesting a 7.5-foot drawdown of the lake from September 2026 through May 2027.
But drawing down Lake Mallalieu will dump more phosphorus into our St. Croix River! And more phosphorus will make bigger floating mats of filamentous algae and bigger blooms of toxic blue-green algae along the Hudson waterfront! A pound of phosphorus grows 300 to 500 pounds of algae! Millions more pounds of algae would grow in our St. Croix River and Lake St. Croix!
Since 2013, St. Croix County has invested $4.4 MILLION in watershed improvement projects to reduce phosphorus pollution of our St. Croix River. Flushing Lake Mallalieu’s phosphorus-laden muck into the St. Croix River would reverse a big part of the County’s progress. It would flush our tax money down the river, too.
Besides harming our St. Croix River, Lake Mallalieu’s fishery would be lost for who knows how long, as the drawdown would drain the lake except for a shallow pool by the dam. Local anglers who love bass fishing on Lake Mallalieu would be out of luck.
This drawdown still can be stopped by co-owners of the dam creating Lake Mallalieu: St. Croix County, the City of Hudson or the Town of Hudson. Tell them to protect our St. Croix River by saying “NO” to this drawdown. Contact information is on their websites.
Go to www.lakemallalieudredging.info for more information.