Ashmere Drawdown Raises Charges of Wetlands Violations
 Courtesy Michael Frederick
The water has dropped below the level of the channel under Route 143 that connects the north and south sides of Lake Ashmere. |
On April 7, the DCR deemed the water elevation at the lake to be too high because of the natural conditions following the winter melt, said DCR Commissioner Rick Sullivan on Monday. He said the water was about 2.5 feet above the permitted winter drawdown level, and that DCR initiated an additional drawdown.
Water levels are normally adjusted in the fall, according to Michael Frederick, chairman of both the Peru and Hinsdale conservation commissions. The lake straddles the town line between the two.
The state is permitted by the town of Hinsdale to draw down Ashmere by three feet, via a valve on the dam on the south side of the 300-acre lake. Frederick said when he was notified by a resident about the diminished state of the lake on April 17, the water appeared to have dropped by about five feet.
"I got a phone call from someone who lives on the north side. He said, 'I went to bed, and I owned lakefront property. I woke up this morning, and there's nothing but a big puddle,'" said Frederick in an interview Sunday. "I went up there, and I was totally dumbfounded. The water had already gone down about five feet. It was April 17. I'll never forget that date."
At the lake, the channel between the northern and southern sections of Ashmere, which passes under Route 143, is no longer passable by boat and the shoreline has grown by several feet. Islands have popped up where none existed before, and the shore — once lined with grass, rock and sand — is now muck that would normally be well under water.
Sullivan said the normal calculations were made, based on the historic recharge rate of the lake. But this time, the lake drained differently for unknown reasons.
"Quite frankly, due to apparently an acceleration of the natural drawdown rate, it drew down quicker than expected, and it actually drew down too far," said Sullivan on Monday.
State Notified
Frederick said he notified state officials about the problem on April 17 but, because of the Patriots Day holiday weekend, workers were very hard, if not impossible, to reach.
Sullivan said the valve was finally shut off on April 19. Frederick heard that a DCR employee had turned the valve on and forgotten about it, but Sullivan said that was not the case.
View Lake Ashmere in a larger map |
"We do expect that it will be available for recreational use in the recreational season, which typically starts around Memorial Day. And certainly if we get the rains that are expected, all that will help to recharge it faster," he said.
Sullivan said the accidental drawdown has nothing to do with the ongoing proposal to repair the lake's dam, deemed a "high hazard" by the DCR's Office of Dam Safety. Part of DCR's proposal for the dam includes a request to draw down the lake by 6 feet.
The permitting process is under way for the project but, to date, permits are still needed on the state and federal levels.
As for the wildlife and ecosystem in the lake and where the water discharged to the south, Frederick has serious concerns.
"We are looking at the largest wetland violation that I've ever seen in my entire career," said Frederick. "There's a lot of people who are really furious right now. People have actually been going out and picking up stranded fish and taking them to pools of water, which is really nice to see, in a manner of speaking."
But Sullivan and Ed Coletta, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, said there's no evidence that the ecosystem has been affected. Sullivan did say, however, that underwater life could have been affected by having the area of its habitat reduced.
"At this moment in time, we don't see that there were any significant effects. Certainly, because of the shallowness, there's no question that the appearance is pretty dramatic,' said Sullivan. "We have no visible observations of any distress of wildlife. However, it is possible that there could've been impacts to breeding aquatic life.
"We certainly commit to work closely with our sister agencies — the DEP and others — to determine if there's any long-term impacts on the lake ecosystem."
State Investigation
Coletta said an investigation is under way.
"We're aware of the situation out at Lake Ashmere. They have closed the outlet structure, so the level is no longer falling, so that's good news in our mind. We have been in contact with the local Conservation Commission, and we also had a couple people out to the site this past week to look at it," he said. "We're still doing our investigation, and we don't really have any conclusions to offer at this point. We just know that more water was released than anticipated."
Coletta said the DEP would have oversight if there was some kind of environmental infraction by the DCR. He also said there was no timeline for a determination. If the extreme drawdown does turn out to be an environmental mishap, Sullivan said the DCR will take ownership.
"If there actions that need to be taken to correct any of those scenarios ... in terms of impact on the lake ecosystem, DCR will step up and be responsible for those. At DCR, we take very seriously our commitment to the environment, our commitment to conservation, and in this particular case, there's also recreational uses. So we work very hard to follow through on the stewardship that is part of our mission."
Frederick said his commissions have the ability to issue citations but thought it would be better to have one state agency pursue the other over the problem.
The conservation commissions of both towns will meet tonight, May 5, discuss the repair project slated for the dam.
Frederick said the possible violation is not on the agenda, and will not be up for discussion.
"We now have two issues: one is the permitting, and the other is the violation."
Frederick, for his part, is confident that the drawdown was a violation, and he won't call it anything else.
"To me, an ace is an ace, and a deuce is a deuce, and there's nothing in between."
Contact Noah Hoffenberg at hoff1013@gmail.com.
