Dear Supervisors,

As the opportunity for comments have been sketchy recently, I comment by email.

Please refer to page 12 (Memorandum) in the Agenda packet under the heading: “Operational Projects”, Millpond Project:

“Status: Valve is wide open and water levels are coming down with the dry weather”.  Not exactly information overflow, but this statement seems to reflect more wishful thinking than accurate information. 

Actually, during the last 30 day “dry” period the water level has gone up 3 times, several feet each time, culminating in 2 overflows and working on its 3rd one today, while none of these were caused by significant rain falls (all less than 1.7"/day). This emphasizes the massive runoff again.  Also, since the beginning of the drawdown, the Millpond has been flooded more than half the time!

I quote here from the Millpond Report Executive Summary: “An analysis of the land use, as well as computer modeling of sediment and nutrient loads, highlights the  primary driver of pollutant loading as agricultural sources”.

Would it not make sense then that our SWCD department would tackle “the primary driver of pollutant loading” problem?  SWCD's recommended option however, shows otherwise.  The 2 yr. drawdown was never part of the options presented to the public.  This was added later under “Updated Management Options” as a separate topic on the SWCD website, and to show how ineffective this option is, they mention here that it might have to be repeated every 5 - 10 yrs. again!  The execution of this SWCD recommendation (the 2 yr. drawdown) was then later assigned to Facilities and Parks.

This ill conceived project has already ruined our recreational opportunities and destroyed the fish and wildlife for many years, polluted the waters of our neighbors downstream and added serious health risks to residents and visitors. 

The Board approved this project without a plan in place of how to manage it. That came about 8 months later, and following that plan has been full of flaws as well.

The so called “Stakeholders Meetings” as part of the decision making process did not include any of the most important stakeholders!

Time to reconsider this project and bring the REAL stakeholders on board during the decision making process, meaning establishing a twin Door County/Kewaunee County Ahnapee Watershed Management Plan.

Thank you,

Robert Sijgers,

FOFD, Inc.