In mid-August the city threw a party for a lake that was just taken off the impaired waters list – which doesn’t happen often.
“That’s really something to celebrate for sure…” said Nick Tomczik from the Rice Creek Watershed District. “It’s pretty infrequent.”
This North Metro Lake is clearly on the rebound thanks to decades of hard work by groups of people committed to cleaning it up.
Golden Lake is golden once again and Circle Pines is ecstatic about this incredible comeback.
“We’ve been working on it for over 40 years,” said Circle Pines Mayor Dave Bartholomay. “I’ve been working on it for about 25-30 years. A lot of community members, a lot of city councils over time. Partnership with WSB Engineering, with Rice Creek Watershed.”
“Hey, it’s a great day,” Tomczik said. “We’re delisting a body of water here. It’s the combined effort of much of the community to get to this point and there’s still work to be done to make sure we can enjoy it in the future.”
Win-win
The delisting news is win-win for everyone – from wildlife to residents. On delisting day a bald eagle could be spotted on a tree above the water and people gravitated to the now clean lake.
“It’s awesome,” said Viviana Schwab of Shoreview. “My son and I started fishing at this lake. It’s been great.”
Schwab frequently comes to the lake. “It’s just really calm waters,” Schwab said. “Most of the people here are pretty friendly. We don’t really have other boats because nobody can come here with a boat.”
Unfortunately Golden Lake is one of just a few lakes in the Land of Lakes that has been delisted.
“Between half to two-thirds of the lakes in Minnesota are on the impaired list,” Bartholomay said. “Too much nitrogen or phosphorus from both farming and from homeowners where it’s coming off their lawns into the lake.”
“Rice Creek is delisting four lakes at this time out of the 55 that we have in the watershed district,” said Tomczik.”
Simply put, lakes land on the impaired waters list because of too much pollution.
“It’s the nutrient load coming into the lake itself,” Tomczik said. “That feeds the algae bloom that increases these levels in nutrients and food that’s available to the algae and the plants.”
Ongoing process
The celebration was a joyful event, but Circle Pines also knows that keeping Golden Lake natural is an ongoing process.
“The maintenance continues,” Bartholomay said. “It’s never a done deal. We always have to work. Water quality is huge in Minnesota. We have a lot of water, the question is how good is it. Golden Lake is in a great spot now.”
“This is our favorite lake,” Schwab said. “We’ve been to others but this one is always number one.”
Golden Lake could be a blueprint for other lakes on the impaired waters list but it is important to note that each lake is unique.
