Lakes in danger: residents campaign to save Thole and O’Dowd
To read state reports about the lakes, click here.
By Shannon Fiecke, Staff Writer
Linda Rubietta’s family used to relax on the sandy beach behind their home of 23 years.
Their beach on a bay of O’Dowd Lake has since disappeared. The bay is laden with weeds. Ten years ago, you could see 6 to 8 feet deep here. Now you can’t see more than a foot.
“I would never swim in this lake. Not now,” Rubietta said. “It’s so scummy and nasty.”
Mucky waters are just part of the troubles on O’Dowd and neighboring Thole Lake.
The issues range “from shoreline erosion to overpopulation of the weeds to water quality,” said Louisville Township Clerk LuAnne Lemke, who lives on O’Dowd.
One family planted a vegetative barrier to prevent shoreline
erosion and to act as a filter strip between runoff and the lake.
The only residents who were serious about planting buffer zones along their property to protect their land and prevent runoff into the lake were those who lived on her peninsula and had been affected by skiers the most.
Other residents are finally waking up, now that their area of the lake is also being affected, Rubietta said.
She just hopes it’s not too little too late.
Shannon Fiecke can be reached at (952) 345-6679 or sfiecke@swpub.com.
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