By By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star
Barron Lake's low level - down two feet since April - had to be resolved in court and will soon be relieved by a well.
That's why Cass County's second “lake augmentation well” is being installed at the Howard Township lake at a cost of more than $300,000 following a two-day court battle before Circuit Judge Michael E. Dodge.
All lake levels must be set in Circuit Court.
VanBelle said, “We are pumping water from a deep aquifer to replenish the lake at a shallow aquifer. There is a 60-foot layer of clay between those aquifers, so hydrologists are telling me they're not connected. Do they know that 100-percent? No.”
In the case of Round Lake, which contacted him Wednesday about a study, “There is no layer of clay between those aquifers,” he said. “Basically, they said, it would be like recirculating water, so how could farm wells not affect” lake levels?
Barron Lake residents “are paying for the project,” VanBelle emphasized. “The county's not paying for that. The township's not paying for that. Those riparian owners are paying for that. I'm under court order to do that and that's exactly what I will do. They're receiving the benefit, they're paying for it, I'm just administering this project.”
The first augmentation well went 15 years ago at Twin Lakes in Wayne Township.
Rotarian Bill Livingston asked VanBelle for his opinion on farming irrigation wells on lake levels.