Heavy rains over the weekend caused the City of Fond du Lac to send untreated water into Lake Winnebago from two locations.

Fond du Lac Public Works Director Jordan Skiff confirmed Monday afternoon that bypassing of the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant occurred late Sunday morning. Water was diverted from the sewer treatment plant and from a section of town experiencing extreme volumes of water. Untreated water is diverted to avoid the backup of water in basements around the city.

“Part of (the problem) is the saturation of the soil,” Skiff said. “Sunday we had more intense rain. Thursday we had more actual rain, but spread out throughout the day.”

Skiff said the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was notified of the bypass.

Skiff said Monday that he is working to gather facts and complete a detailed report for the DNR.

The system was back to normal function on Monday. Bypass of the treatment plant was a temporary, emergency action.

City officials were made aware Sunday of some isolated cases of standing water in the streets. The area received more than an inch of rain Sunday and about a half-inch on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. That is on top of about 1½-inches of rain received on Wednesday and Thursday.

The intersection of Park and Merrill avenues was one of the trouble spots, including some portions of Johnson Street, Park Avenue, Amory Street and Rose Avenue.

“To my knowledge, the storm sewer was flowing fine — it was simply overwhelmed for a brief period before noon yesterday (Sunday),” Skiff said.

There were few reports of flooded basements due to the intense rains.

He said staff was working with a resident that was dealing with water in a basement without the help of a sump pump.

Public Works staff also received a few complaints of overflowing ditches. Skiff said he was not aware of widespread problems.

via Heavy rain forces City of Fond du Lac to bypass treatment plant | Fond du Lac Reporter | fdlreporter.com.

Wisconsin is not fully enforcing strict phosphorus limits adopted two years ago to reduce lake-algae blooms that make people sick, a Gannett Wisconsin Media review has found.

That’s despite the state Department of Natural Resources secretary’s alarm at foul conditions in a lake in northwestern Wisconsin last summer.

The state Legislature in 2010 approved DNR regulations intended to cut down on the amount of phosphorus running into waterways, where it causes algae to grow so thick that the water turns to green soup. The regulations are aimed at wastewater treatment plants, paper mills and factories — which are required to reapply for permits at five-year intervals.

But as of last week, only 19 permits with stricter limits have been issued since September 2010. The DNR still is evaluating applications from 201 municipal facilities and 155 industrial facilities, while hundreds more must apply for permits in the coming years.

That means boaters, swimmers and anglers on waters such as the lower Fox River and Lake Winnebago, where the annual algae bloom can be bad, can expect little change this summer as phosphorus continues to pour into the water. Once in lakes and streams, the chemical helps algae grow uncontrollably, robbing them of oxygen, harming fish and other plants and sometimes leaving people who come in contact with it ill.

“On a very practical level, the DNR is so behind and permits are sitting out there not being reissued,” said Melissa Malott of the environmental group Clean Wisconsin, which pushed for the rule. “It’s not that the DNR isn’t trying, but they just don’t have the staff to do all the things they’re supposed to be doing.”

The Fox River and Lake Winnebago are among more than 300 waters across the state in which high phosphorus levels cause problems.

The EPA requires states to maintain a list of lakes, rivers and ponds that don’t meet water quality standards. States then must come up with plans for addressing the problem at each location and send regular updates to the EPA.

Health hazards

At its worst, cyanobacteria — the organisms that feed on phosphorus and are commonly known as blue-green algae — can sicken humans, causing respiratory problems, skin rashes and cold- or flu-like symptoms. During the last three years, 100 people reported illnesses to the state Department of Public Health after exposure to blue-green algae, which also has caused the death of at least two dogs in that time.

“It’s certainly a health concern for people swimming, especially young kids,” said Todd Drew, environmental health sanitarian for Menasha.

Concerns about blue-green algae spotted on Lake Winnebago have been raised in four of the past five years, Drew said, noting a health advisory issued last year for Municipal Beach on the north shore.

Dunn County in northwest Wisconsin reported the highest number of illnesses, largely at Tainter Lake and the equally algae-coated Lake Menomin. Dick Lamers, president of the joint Lake Improvement Association, built his house on Tainter Lake in 2007 and said he was fully aware of the algae that grows on the lake each summer. But he had no idea how bad it could get.

Lamers, 64, and his wife, Marilyn, envisioned the lake house as a place their family could gather for fishing or boating — “the typical vision for someone retiring.” But on most summer days, the bay in front of their home looks like a bowl of pea soup — and smells worse. In late summer, the algae decays and gives off an odor that forces the Lamers and other neighbors to head indoors and close their windows.

“You barely want to put a boat in, much less swim,” he said.

In a video shot last summer by Clean Wisconsin, Lamers guides a small boat across the lake’s bright green surface and through decaying algae giving off a “hog farm” odor. An oar dipped into the water comes out covered in green, like a brush dipped into a can of paint.

Cited by both the DNR and Clean Wisconsin as an example of how high phosphorus levels can spoil both the recreational and economic benefits of a lake, conditions at Tainter Lake and Lake Menomin also made DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp, appointed by Gov. Scott Walker in December 2010, push for tougher phosphorus efforts.

Stepp visited with the Lamers and several other neighbors in August, touring the lake and listening to their concerns. The following month, Stepp told members of the state’s Natural Resources Board that both she and Walker were “alarmed” by the conditions.

“That this has gone on for as long as it has, for over 50 years easily, is an example to us that priorities need to be examined in all things DNR and how we spend our money,” she said. “We do not have clean water in these areas. And that to me, as the head of this agency, is disappointing at best and alarming at worst but (also) motivation to do the right thing.”

Stepp said the DNR should act as a “helper,” bringing together residents, business owners and environmentalists, rather than “a hammer” forcing rule changes.

Clean Wisconsin’s Malott said Tainter Lake and Lake Menomin should serve as cautionary tales for residents near other lakes or rivers with frequent algae problems or high phosphorus levels.

In the 40th anniversary year of the federal Clean Water Act, “we’re reaching a phase two of pollution,” Malott said. “I feel like there’s this looming cloud of toxic algae on the horizon. What’s happening in Tainter (Lake) is the direction all of our waters are headed if we don’t stop this pollution problem.”

Slow progress

Wisconsin has significantly strengthened phosphorus regulations in recent years to prevent the chemical from winding up in bodies of water. In addition to passing more stringent discharge rules for industry, lawmakers banned phosphorus-based fertilizers in 2008 and the DNR is working with farmers to reduce phosphorus runoff from their fields.

From the viewpoint of Randy Much, manager of the Neenah-Menasha sewage treatment plant, agricultural land is the biggest culprit.

“Probably the biggest source (of phosphorus) all together on the whole Fox-Wolf River basin is ag land,” Much said. “You can take all the point discharges (from municipal and industrial treatment plants) down to zero and it still wouldn’t even come close to meeting the standards.”

That means to improve the water quality in Lake Winnebago and the lower Fox River will require phosphorus reductions throughout the whole watershed, he said.

The DNR’s slow progress at enforcing the phosphorus limits isn’t that surprising to environmentalists who fought for the change. Malott said she anticipated a gap between the limits’ effective date and stricter permits being issued.

That’s why Clean Wisconsin fought against Walker’s February 2011 proposal to push back the new rules’ effective date by two years.

“We knew delays would happen, but an enforcement-deadline change would push back progress even further,” Malott said.

Regulators, environmentalists and residents of lakes dealing with the effects of phosphorus agree it could take years for new rules to bring change, even without an official delay.

The permit section of the DNR’s Bureau of Watershed Management lists 19 employees in the agency’s organizational chart and 15 employees of the wastewater section.

Amanda Minks, a water quality specialist with the DNR, said the agency is issuing new permits to city or town wastewater plants as fast as possible. Progress slowed last year when Walker proposed the delay, and the DNR had to get the process running quickly when the governor withdrew his proposal, she said.

“Infancy maybe is a good word” for the new phosphorus rules, Minks said. “We’re the first state in the Midwest to really implement this for all of our water body types.”

Minks said DNR employees at the regional and central offices work on permit applications, but the agency also is trying to be flexible with facilities applying for permits. Upgrading a wastewater plant to decrease phosphorus levels can be expensive for a company or municipality, she said.

“We want to be partners,” Minks said. “Giving that additional flexibility and compliance options takes staff time and resources to get off the ground.”

Todd Ambs is the former administrator of the DNR’s water division and now works as president of the River Network, traveling across the country to bodies of water dealing with a variety of pollutants. Wisconsin should look to the “critical state” of Lake Erie in Ohio and Michigan for a glimpse of what severe phosphorus contamination and uncontrollable algae growth can do to a body of water, Ambs said.

The shallow western side of the lake was hit with a “sickly and unprecedented” algae bloom during the last three summers with a severity not seen since the 1970s, according to the EPA.

“The western end of Lake Erie is dying,” Ambs said. “It’s very, very troublesome. We’re not just talking about quality of life. There are whole industries including charter boat fishing that are in deep, deep trouble.”

But Ambs, DNR officials and residents near algae-affected waters are prepared for a long process to improve Wisconsin waters.

“It took us more than 100 years to screw it up,” Ambs said. “So I’ve always said, it’s going to take more than a couple years to fix it.”

via Dangerous algae flourishes as Wisconsin slogs through permits | Appleton Post Crescent | postcrescent.com.

Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) is a deadly fish virus and invasive species that is threatening the current and future health of fish in Wisconsin.

VHS has been found in European freshwater trout since the 1930s and was first discovered in Great Lakes freshwater fish in 2005. It has caused massive fish die offs in Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake St. Claire, and the St. Lawrence River.

In Wisconsin, VHS was first detected in the Lake Michigan and Lake Winnebago systems in May 2007. In December 2009, lake herring collected from Lake Superior near the Apostle Islands tested positive for the VHS virus.

Scientists are not exactly sure how VHS arrived, although it appears the virus may have entered the Great Lakes through ballast water introductions, brought in frozen Pacific herring to be used as fishing bait, and by migrating fish from the Atlantic Coast. The virus can spread when infected fish discharge urine or reproductive fluids, and when healthy fish consume infected fish. In addition, the virus can survive in water for at least 14 days; increasing the probability of infecting more fish.

Symptoms of VHS include hemorrhaging (bleeding), bulging eyes, bloated abdomens, anemia, pale organs, unusual bleeding found in muscle tissue and internal organs, unusual behavior, rapidly deteriorating health, and death, although some infected fish may not show any symptoms at all. Fish that survive a VHS infection will develop antibodies to the virus, temporarily protecting it from future outbreaks.

VHS is one of the most serious fish pathogens because of its ability to kill in mass quantities, it affects a variety of fish species, and isn’t treatable. It is not a health threat to people who handle or consume their catch, but can have devastating effects to at least 28 fish species, including 19 sportfish!

Fish species that can be affected by VHS include black crappie, bluegill, bluntnose minnow, brown bullhead, brown trout, burbot, channel catfish, Chinook salmon, emerald shiner, freshwater drum, gizzard shad, lake whitefish, largemouth bass, muskellunge, shorthead redhorse, northern pike, pumpkinseed, rainbow trout, rock bass, round goby, silver redhorse, smallmouth bass, spottail shiner, trout-perch, walleye, white bass, white perch, and yellow perch.

Fish species have highly variable levels of susceptibility to VHS. Current research suggests that muskellunge are the most susceptible to death after coming in contact with VHS, followed by largemouth bass, yellow perch, rainbow trout, brook trout, brown trout, coho salmon, and Chinook salmon. Characteristically, cold water fish can tolerate higher doses of the VHS virus than warm water fish.

Like all aquatic invasive species in the Lake Superior basin, VHS is a serious threat to the waters of Wisconsin. A virus that is easily spread from fish to fish, doesn’t have a cure, attacks the immune system of fish with little to no resistance against the virus, and possesses the ability to harm at least 28 fish species is a deadly combination, literally.

Wisconsin boasts some of the most protective rules to prevent the spread of VHS and other aquatic invasive species among all of the Great Lakes states. We all need to follow the rules to ensure the spread of VHS is contained now and in the future.

Take these steps to ensure that your actions are not part of the problem, but the solution!
• Inspect your boat, trailer, and equipment.
• Remove any attached aquatic plants or animals.
• Drain all water from boats, motors, and equipment.
• Never move live fish away from a waterbody.
• Dispose of unwanted bait in the trash.
• Buy minnows from a Wisconsin bait dealer.
• You must drain all water from your boat and equipment when leaving any state water except: you can take up to 2 gallons of water needed to hold live minnows that can be legally transported as outlined below.
• You may not leave a water with any live fish, or fish eggs except:
• You can take live minnows bought from a Wisconsin bait dealer and left over after a fishing trip away from any state water and use them:
1) again on that same water, or
2) on other waters but only if no lake or river water, or other fish were added to the container.

This piece was written by Scott Caven, the aquatic invasive species (AIS) coordinator for the Ashland County Land and Water Conservation Department. For more information, please contact him at (715) 682-7187 or ais.ashlandlwcd@centurytel.net.

Lake News: Watch For The Alien Invader, VHS.

Next summer, boaters are expected to be able to travel along the Fox River from Green Bay to Lake Winnebago.

That’s great for recreation, but it’s a concern for scientists.

Bart De Stasio, a Lawrence University biology professor, has been charged with studying invasive species in the river and detecting whether they have spread.

During a Newsmakers interview last week, De Stasio discussed a barrier near Wrightstown and how invasive species could hurt Fox Valley waterways.

Here are excerpts from the interview:

Tell us how you describe invasive species and why they’re so destructive.

Invasive species typically are any kind of species that isn’t evolved in one location. It’s something that comes in new, but, more than that, it’s something that causes a problem for society or for the ecology of the system. Or, if it caused a problem someplace else, it can be considered invasive in a new location.

What kinds of problems can they create?

In the Great Lakes, we have a problem with zebra mussels. That’s a species that evolved in Europe, in the Caspian Sea region. When it was transported here on boats, it became a problem because it attached to boats, to piers, to bouys. The problem that it causes for companies, especially, is it clogs intake pipes. Those have to be cleaned out periodically. That’s a brand new expense for companies.

Tell us about your study of the Fox River.

The Fox River study that’s going on now is to look at invasive species that might be coming in through the Fox River to the upland lakes, like Lake Winnebago and the upper pool lakes.

The Fox River is a location where they’re trying to open up the navigational waterway. The state has purchased all the locks and they’re refurbishing them. As part of that, they have to ensure that they don’t allow invasive species to go upriver.

They’ve decided to keep one of them closed as an invasive species barrier, the one that’s at Wrightstown at the Rapide Croche lock. Our job now it to monitor for invasive species before anything else happens to make sure they’re not allowing invasive species to go upriver.

What species are you finding?

Our study is set up so we can look at locations below the current invasive species barrier at Rapide Croche. What we’re finding is things you typically find in Green Bay or Lake Michigan that are known to be invasive are occurring just below that barrier.

We have round goby, a fish that again was brought in from the Caspian Sea region. The round goby is established near the De Pere dam, and we found it even above the Little Kaukauna dam. That’s a species that has the potential for ruining the ecology of systems. It feeds on the eggs of other fish, like yellow perch, and crustaceans that live on the bottom.

How do you actually conduct the Fox River study?

I hire two students every summer to help me. We have three sites identified below the Rapide Croche dam and three above it. At each of those locations, we got out at least four or five times each summer.

What we’re doing is sampling for all fish that would be in that location, all the invertebrates that live on the bottom and also looking at all the animals that live in the water, like water fleas. We identify everything that’s there, and determine whether it’s native or invasive.

Why is the round goby so bad?

The round goby has been shown in Lake Michigan and other Great Lakes to really affect the ecology, so how the food web functions. Because it is a predator on other fish eggs, it has the potential for affecting fish reproduction.

Yellow perch is one that’s a concern. In Green Bay, there historically has been a great yellow perch fishery — all the perch fish frys we have on Friday nights.

Are you concerned that the lock system will not stop the invasive species?

Yes. There’s a lot of concern about that because once you open up a lock and allow boats through it, what you’ve done is allowed a lot of water with those boats to be moved upstream.

Anything that’s attached to a boat or that are in the live wells, perhaps, or attached to fishing lines — there’s a spiny water flea that attaches to ropes and fishing lines — anything that gets moved with the boat can potentially be transported.

What are the safety measures built into the lock system?

The state authority that’s in charge of this system is called the Fox River Navigational System Authority. It was created in 2001 to oversee the opening of the locks. That authority put in place a management plan, part of which was monitoring invasive species to make sure they’re not moving them.

What they’ve done is provided educational opportunities for boaters to realize they shouldn’t be moving boats upstream unless the boats are clean.

They’re allowing boats to cross that invasive species barrier only if they’ve been properly cleaned. The plan is to construct a boat cleaning station that would lift boats over the lock at Rapide Croche and then use a hot-water treatment to clean those boats.

Why does the hot-water treatment system work?

We wanted to avoid using strong chemicals because then you have to deal with dangerous waste. We investigated the idea of using hot water, which is easy to remove.

The Fox River Navigational System Authority contracted with us to do studies to test how hot would the water have to be and how long the boat would have to be in contact with that water.

I had a student work on that project with me and we determined that 110 degrees would be enough to kill the species we were seeing, and that they would have to have a five-minute immersion. The plan is to have a hot-water dunk tank essentially. The gear would have to be treated as well.

What concerns have you heard from boaters?

One of the main ones is that this transport of boats above the species barrier will allow sea lamprey or round goby to get through. Fish are usually a little easier to deal with because they don’t attach to the bottom of the boat. So if any boat is observed to have live fish on it, it will be denied passage.

How else can species get through?

One of the issues is that there are a lot of boat landings below Rapide Croche, so smaller boats that can be taken out of the water are transported around the barrier and put back in the water. In fact, we’re pretty sure that’s how the zebra mussel was introduced into Lake Winnebago back in 1998, that there was a boat in Green Bay for the first half of the summer and it was moved to Winnebago the second half and introduced that species.

Our barrier is not going to stop everything from coming in, but the authority is charged with making sure it doesn’t get through that (specific) barrier.

Is it a matter of educating boaters?

That’s a big part of it. The Clean Boats, Clean Waters program is an effort to make boaters realize they should not be transporting boats from one body of water to the next in a short time. The recommendation is to have at least a five-day drying period, if not longer, and to make sure a boat is fully cleaned before it’s moved to a new body of water.

Lake News: Q.

The Wisconsin D.N.R. is calling it a possibly devastating situation. Fish biologists are watching the Asian Carp move its way into Wisconsin waters. The State Assembly Resources Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday to try to get some answers. Meanwhile, there’s concern the fast-moving fish will find its way to Northeast Wisconsin, and perhaps, even Lake Winnebago.

Video from  Youtube shows the fish frenzy. Asian carp have been flying out of these waters for years, now they’re heading north, to the Badger State.

“It’s kind of the enemy is at the gates,” said Kendall Kamke, Senior Fisheries Biologist, for the D.N.R.

Kamke says the fish have moved well into Wisconsin waters. They are stalled for now, at the Prairie du Sac dam, but 30 miles upstream, are the headwaters of the Fox River. A possible next stop, is the Lake Winnebago system.

“It could be devastating,” said Kamke.

Kamke says the big carp feed on tiny plankton,

“It knocks the foundation out from under your food-chain. It can collapse all other species,” said Kamke.

And possibly, a local economy that depends on fishing along with it.

“If you were to ruin the walleye fishing, or white bass fishing, or boating, you put that monetary value at jeopardy,” said Kamke.

“It’s not something I’d like to see in this lake, that’s for sure,” said Adam Reyes, a fisherman from Oshkosh.

“I don’t like it, but I don’t know what we can do about it. Once they’re here, it’s gonna be impossible, to get rid of them,” said Bob Marin, a fisherman from Oshkosh.

“Rarely will you ever get rid of them, you learn to live with them, or try to control them,” said Kamke.

And so far, this invasive species, shows no signs, of turning back. Biologists fear, the Asian Carp could also affect fishing in the Great Lakes. Leaders hope they can come up with a plan to keep the carp in check, during Wednesday’s meeting in Madison.

Lake News: Asian Carp fly into Wisconsin.