Residents on Waumegah Lake now enjoy a higher lake level, thanks to the much fought for augmentation well and a little help from nature.
State administrative decisions have allowed the installation of the well on the lake which straddles Springfield and Independence townships, even as a legal battle over the lake level continues.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality allowed the well to be installed last November, according to Dr. Paul Haduck, riparian representative to the Waumegah Lake Improvement Board.
The permit came with a still-unacceptable limitation, Haduck said, as the DEQ will only recognize a lake level of 1,048.8 feet. The lake board still wants a level of 1,049.9 feet, as contained in a previous circuit court order.
A report from the Oakland County Drain Commission said the lake was at 1,049.1 as of March 4. Operation of the well by the lake homeowners association and winter snowfall have added to the lake’s level.
Victories include a Jan. 27 memo from the DEQ reporting the agency’s decision to no longer require permits for augmentation wells used to keep lakes at ‘ordinary? levels.
With irony, Haduck said that memo went to all lake improvement boards except Waumegah.
With opponents citing concerns about wetland vegetation, a new challenge came in the form of a Michigan Department of Natural Resources edict concerning potential threats to the state-threatened white lady slipper.
A Feb. 11 memo from the DNR says that concern has been adequately addressed, Haduck said, and the well’s operation shows no threat to the environment or residential groundwater.
?[The lake is] purer than drinking water,? he said. ‘We’ve done pump tests. It’s affected no residential wells. It’s just how it was supposed to be.?
A lawsuit from the lake board against the DEQ is still pending in Oakland County Circuit Court, but Haduck said the board is following a judge’s request to exhaust administrative appeals before going back to court.
The years-old controversy centers on whether Waumegah Lake was intended to be an ‘all-sports? lake. Proponents say the augmentation well merely restores the lake to a level prior to the destruction of retaining berms and other devices.