I believe that one of the points to declaring the river a legal drain is to unlock funding to maintain the river. Unfortunately, some of the work you describe requires appropriate equipment and trained people to operate it. You cannot rely on volunteers (many of whom are elderly) and volunteer funds from just the West Lakes chain (the only likely source for both volunteers and $) to maintain the river, especialy when the water originates from several other lakes and chains of lakes upstream – do you think the folks on Sylvan, the Indian Lakes, local farmers etc. are going to contribute time, sweat and money to address a problem that they help cause if it doesn’t affect them negatively?? Probably not. Should all contributors that cause the problem also contribute to solving the problem? Of course they should. Currently, the West Lakes residents bear the greatest burden and are expected to fund the cost to fix the problem with little or no help from outside parties.

There is no appreciable “building” occuring on West Lakes – most of the chain is unbuildable and remains natural. Nearly all of those new properties replaced older ones and are up above the required flood plane. To state that the homes should be bought by the local government as others have mentioned on this board is ludicrous – that isn’t going to happen.

We need to address the problem that we can actual get our arms around – the one point where water exits. The sources of the water flowing in encompass many other lakes, private and public landowners and farms. There are also several other local governments to contend with. I’m sorry, but no amount of lecturing is going to convince some farmer to put in a rain garden or dig a retention pond (on his own property) to slow rain runoff. As for slowing water into the West Lakes, just how do you suggest we do that – build a dam? Push the water elsewhere – on who’s land? With hundreds of sources, where do you start? Those ideas are great but they take years to develop and produce results. When high water prevents emergency equipment from reaching a homeowner in need of help, we need a quick resolution to go along with long term solutions

I’m glad to hear that “nobody wants to ruin the water quality of the Elkhart River”. Unfortunately, turning it into a regulated drain gives the Noble County Surveyor the authority (and the money) to do with it as he pleases. It takes control from you, me and even the Noble County Commissioners and drainage board. Handing over the management of the Elkhart River to one person (with no training or qualifications to manage such an ecosystem) is clearly bad policy. The Indiana drainage law gives the Surveyor this power. Instead, the drainage law needs to be updated to reflect what science has taught us over the past 100 years (environmental impact, the value of wetlands, the importance of flood plains, etc.).

I applaud the West Lakes for sewering the lakes, but continuing to build in the flood plain is problematic. Every time it floods, water washes fertilizers from your lawns and oils and coolants from your roads and driveways into the river. This means that the West Lakes is probably a huge source of pollution for the river.

Construction/development in the flood plain should stop immediately.

You keep mentioning that log jams are causing the problem. Here are some unanswered questions:

1. You can remove the log jams without redesignating the river. So, why turn it into a legal drain?
2. Where are these log jams that you want to remove? How many are there? When was the last time you floated the river downstream?
3. Where is the proof that these jams will eliminate your flooding?
Do you have professional hydrologists recommending their removal?
4. The Elkhart River Alliance members have been removing log jams in the river for many years – for free!
Why not let them instruct West Lake volunteers on how to safely and legally remove snags along the river?
5. Why aren’t you working to slow the water from upstream instead of trying to move your flood water onto someone else downstream?

The same people who complain about cleaning up the debris in the Elkhart River to put flow back where nature had it just a few years ago are the same ones who complain because the river has e-coli, is unswimmable, and the fish are unfit for eating.

The answer does not take a petition or a rocket scientist to figure out. Water is backing up—-flooding homes upstream—not all homes are on city sewers. (BTW the West Lakes are now on a sewer system) When the water floods e-coli is going to pollute the river.

Take a close look at the pictures at this site: http://www.elkhartriveralliance.org/river-education/indiana-drainage-law

Streams protected by trees help filter the water that runs off from the ground. Cold water can hold more oxygen than warm water. Temperature also influences the rate of photosynthesis by algae and aquatic plants. As water temperature rises, the rate of photosynthesis increases providing there are adequate amounts of nutrients.

Instead of stripping the land much like a mining operation would, why not clean the log-jams out and improve the banks along the stream. Through volunteer efforts, many streams are rescued by putting logs and rocks along the bank instead of in the river.

This prevents the sedimentation of the stream and promotes cooler water. It increases stream quality.

Better stream quality can draw more people to canoe or visit areas to fish. This means $$$ can be introduced into the local economy. We could all use that right now.

There is a big difference in a natural river and a regulated drain. A river is more than a method to provide drainage. A river belongs to all of us.

A regulated drain is controlled by the local surveyor and drainage board. At a meeting of the St. Joe River Basin Commission on June 2, 2009, Scott Ziegler was asked what recourse would the public have if they did not approve of how a regulated drain was managed. His response was that they could vote the officials who approved it out of office. That seems to me like locking the barn door after the horse is already out!

The opposition West Lakes is facing is to giving control of a natural resource that effects (and belongs to) the entire watershed to a small group of upstream landowners to manage in a way that best meets their needs and does not require them to consider the needs of everyone else in the watershed.

Please, let’s take the regulated drain threat off the table, and work together to find both short and long term solutions to protect all the people living here (now and in the future), and that help us to be better stewards of this resource.

I was a part of the recent ERRA/ERA celebration. Many of the things done there promoted responsible stewardship throughout the watershed. The river clean-up; the tours of urban and ag conservation practices; the rain barrel auction; the workshops on building rain barrels and raingardens: all these things were offered to help us see that we can all be a part of the solution.

I understand that this celebration was a long way from West Lakes, but that was because the volunteers were from areas downstream. I’d love to help with similar activities anywhere in the watershed.

There are no log jambs from Waldron to 450 and the trees that are in the river from 450 to 600 are not filled with man made debris so the water is able to flow through, over, under, around the trees. Yes there is some trash that needs to be removed.

I have helped to do log jamb removal near Cosperville in recent years and now that the river is lower we will be able to continue on cleaning in different locations.

Last month I and probaly 65 other river hounds went from Goshen to Elkhart to clean up the man made debris and had a blast. It is a shame on the amount of trash that ends up in our great river. It would be great to have all of the Rivershed celebrate the same day. Maybe someone from each lake association and I could organize such an event with a morning clean up, afternoon grill outs, games and fellowship in each area. It could be a channel or a ditch that flows into your lake.

E.R.R.A. and E.R.A. are concerened with the Elkhart River Watershed and I am a member of both.

I live in Goshen on the dam/river just north of c,r, 38 on the west bank and am witnessing the silt flowing in creating an island that purple loosestife thrives on, in another 5 years I probally will not have waterfront access. So I am doing what I can by helping to educate, preserve, restore and maintain the river wherever and whenever I can.

See you on the water.

You wrote…
“The reality is you haven’t been getting as much lately (downstream) because it has remained in West Lakes and is not flowing downstream as nature would intend.”

This is not true.

Everyone throughout the watershed has experienced higher than normal water levels.
These high levels are the result of more precipitation than we have seen in 15-20 years. High water levels throughout the watershed are confirmed by data from USGS gauging stations along the river. I have personally witnessed levels on the Goshen Dam Pond higher this past winter than I have ever seen them since at least 1990.

Therefore, the cause of the more severe (and deeper) flooding in your West Lakes flood plain is simply a result of higher than usual amount of precipitation. I know this is inconvenient but it’s completely normal and natural.

If I haven’t yet made this clear, let me say that I sympathize with your situation. It must be very frustrating (and at times frightening) dealing with the flooding in West Lakes.

It’s true that ERRA never contacted residents in West Lakes before the severity of the problem became public (just as fire fighters don’t go looking for fires until one starts and someone calls the fire department).

The good news is that this discussion about tending to our shared watershed has now become quite public. That means we have an opportunity to work together and create long-term solutions that benefit everyone.

One of the first steps Noble County could take would be to stop all home construction in the flood plain. There are plenty of old homes in floodplains around the entire country; but some municipalities (like Elkhart) are demonstrating responsible stewardship by banning new construction and/or buying those old homes and demolishing them in an effort to reclaim floodplains for their natural purpose (which is to store water during floods). The West Lakes area is the only place I know of where people continue to construct new homes even though it is common knowledge that the area regularly experiences flooding.

As for the notion that it’s fear mongering to suggest that aggressive measures may eventually follow a regulated drain designation, I’d have to disagree. Pursuing the designation is a red flag. I’m convinced that snag removal on the river will not alleviate flooding in the West Lakes area. My concern is that when this approach fails, it will be replaced by a more aggressive plan that is significantly damaging to the river. So, while the current plan may not be to straighten the river, etc. (I have never said such a concrete plan exists, although I have been quoted as saying this) — it is easy to see how a new, more environmentally detrimental plan could quickly develop.

Redesignating the Elkhart River a regulated drain will enable this to happen.