This browser does not support the Video element.
Lake at Minnesota state park goes dry: What happened?
Lake Alice at William O'Brien State Park has dried up after a mechanical failure of the water control structure. FOX 9’s Corin Hoggard has the story.
WASHINGTON Co., Minn. (FOX 9) - A popular lake at William O’Brien State Park was overflowing late last week, but the solution ended up creating a different problem.
Overflow to empty
Old unfaithful:
By Monday, a mechanical failure had allowed Lake Alice to almost completely dry up.
What was usually a 9-foot-deep lake is now just a little creek, with a trail of dead fish leading to the culprit causing this mess.
A soggy shoreline marks the spot where an overfilled Lake Alice breached a dike and spilled out into the St. Croix River just last week.
State parks employees have done what they’ve always done in that situation since the lake was built in 1961: They opened a valve on Friday to lower the water level by about a foot.
But they had a different ending on Saturday.
"We went to shut the valve, and we found out we had broken parts down inside the water control structure," said Wayne Boerner, the William O'Brien State Park Supervisor for the Department of Natural Resources.
Lost on the lake
‘Pretty sad sight’:
Canoeing, kayaking, and fishing typically draw people to the lake, but by Monday the visitors only came out of curiosity — to see what they’ve lost, at least for the time being.
"It's not even a marshland, it's completely empty," said Andy Kramer from nearby Marije on St. Croix. "And seeing all these dead fish all around is pretty sad."
"We do have a fish kill in the lake which we never want to see," said Boerner.
"But we are seeing wildlife such as our bird species come down. We're seeing our kingfishers, we're seeing hawks coming down and taking some of those fish to eat, so a bad day for some of the fish or a good day for another animal."
It may be a good time to kill off the invasive carp and clean out some weeds as well.
State fisheries employees tried to save some of the pike, and they plan to restock the lake when it’s stable again.
Fill ‘er up!
Finding a fix:
The natural springs can fill it back up in less than a month once there’s a solution.
A temporary fix could come quickly, but with all the old machinery here, a permanent fix will likely take months.