by Steve Frazier – Surface Water Use Team Leader Pro-temp.

The Surface Water Use team has two items to report on this past summer. The first was a situation of use and abuse of Steven’s Point. The presidents of the Steven’s Point Association and the LLPOA worked together to resolve the conflict and to bring member awareness to the issue.

The second is an ongoing discussion item as the LLPOA Board follows the U of M – St. Anthony Falls research on wave action using various types of boats. This research is in its beginning phases but bears watching.

St Anthony Falls Laboratory Healthy Waters Initiative
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The take away of the report confirms the LLPOA’s ‘best practices’ recommendation to conduct water sports in the middle, deep portions of the lake and not in shallow areas.

Quoting from the report, “Here, operational distances greater than 425 ft were needed to decrease wave height, energy, and power of the wake/surf boats to levels similar to the non-wake/surf boats at operational distances of 200 feet.” Report from February 2022

The Board will continue to follow and monitor the research as it has not yet dealt with how wave action affects the shoreland or lake bottom in terms of water quality.

The team suggests that one of our LLPOA members who have a deep wake boat become a board member to bring that perspective to the board of directors.