Mitchell's wetland project headed for construction in 2024, bringing hope to reduce lake's algae woes

Jul. 21—MITCHELL — A patch of land situated along Firesteel Creek will soon transform into a wetland that city leaders hope improves the long history of algae issues Lake Mitchell has grappled with.

After the Mitchell City Council awarded a Nebraska-based construction company's $583,997 bid on Monday to lead the wetland project, it marked a sign of progress for the city's goal of corralling the phosphorus and sediment that flows into Lake Mitchell via Firesteel Creek.

"We'll be getting a good foothold on the water that's coming into the lake. We'll have three sediment traps in there. It's nice to see it progress and finally move forward," Mitchell Mayor Bob Everson said of the wetland design. "Crews will dig into the ground and create an area for the creek to spread out and flood, and that's where the cattails will grow. Once they start growing, that's going to help us remove the nitrogen and phosphorus coming into the lake."

Ducks Unlimited completed the design of the roughly 35-acre wetland, which includes cattails and three sediment trap ponds.

Public Works Director Joe Schroeder said the project is set to begin in the summer of 2024 and wrap up in November 2024.

The wetland project attracted strong interest from construction companies that perform wetland work. Ten bids were submitted for the project, which Schroeder said is a lot for any city project. Bids ranged in prices from as high as $1 million, while the lowest bids were around half a million dollars.

The $583,997 bid — the lowest bid — that was awarded to Whiskeyboard Construction was met with strong support from the Mitchell City Council. After all, it came in about 60% less than the budgeted amount.

Council member Mike Bathke reacted to Whiskeyboard Construction's bid during Monday's meeting by saying, "Wow, what a good bid." Bathke pointed to the low bid as a potential sign of inflationary relief in the construction industry, which he anticipates could result in lower than expected bids for a future lake dredging project pending the outcome of the June 2024 public vote on the $25 million lake dredging loan application.

"That's 35% under the engineer's estimate. I think waiting on the lake may pay off, I hope," Bathke said.

While the proposed $25 million Lake Mitchell dredging project that's headed to a public vote in June 2024 has dominated lake discussions over the past several months, city officials haven't put the wetland by the wayside.

Engineers who have studied the lake to pinpoint its long history of algae woes have concluded the high phosphorus loads in the 350,000-acre Firesteel watershed — which drains into Lake Mitchell — are a key contributor to the harmful algal blooms. Previous studies on the lake indicated roughly 53 percent of the phosphorus and sediment entering the lake is coming in from Firesteel Creek, while 47 percent of it is in the lake itself.

The past studies and engineer recommendations guided city leaders' decision to make a $4.1 million purchase of 371 acres of land, located roughly 2 miles west of Lake Mitchell, for the purpose of building phosphorus-reducing wetlands. Although the first wetland to be built in the city's land represents a small fraction of the massive watershed that stretches northwest from Mitchell to the Wessington Springs area, it will mark one of the biggest projects the city has ever embarked upon in the watershed.

For some council members like Dan Sabers and John Doescher, fulfilling the wetland project is more important than dredging the lake itself at this time. The two council members — who recently voted against the loan application to dredge the lake — both say the wetland should be completed before the city begins any dredging in the lake.

"I think we should be getting more upstream work done first. I also don't like the idea of dredging about half the sediment knowing phosphorus is still coming in through the creek," Sabers said.

Everson, who is a strong advocate for mechanically dredging the lake sediment contributing to harmful algae blooms, emphasized the timeline of the wetland project is still ahead of the proposed lake dredging project that he estimates would begin around 2026, if approved.

"If the loan application gets approved and bids can be open in June, we're probably two to three years out to begin dredging," Everson said, noting the wetland will be complete by then.

As the city began planning for the wetland a few years ago, several key partnerships formed with agencies that have boosted the project. A $1.1 million grant from the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) paired with Ducks Unlimited's $1 million grant provided funding for the city to build its first wetland while also giving producers landowners in the watershed financial incentive to reduce grazing and production in targeted areas.

Over the past several years, Steve Donovan, a former biologist who was tabbed to be the NAWCA grant administrator for the city, has been tasked with making deals with landowners in the watershed.

According to Schroeder, three projects from the NAWCA grant have been completed in the Firesteel watershed, resulting in the protection of 480 acres of existing wetlands in the 350,000-acre watershed. Schroeder said 29 new acres of wetlands will be created as part of the $174,000 the city has spent from its $1.1 million NAWCA grant.

"There's currently 34 property owners considering developing projects with him (Donovan) at this time," Schroeder said.

Although the city has made progress on working with landowners to reduce runoff in the large watershed, a little under $1 million is still available in the city's NAWCA grant. The city is looking to Donovan to continue dedicating more land along the watershed for future wetland projects and additional CRP grasslands, but Everson said it's a challenging process that will be ongoing for years well beyond his time.

"Unfortunately, once we were awarded the NAWCA grant, crop prices increased considerably. It's becoming more difficult to find producers who are willing to put land out of production with the money they are making, which is completely understandable," Everson said. "We're still out there looking for producers who are willing to work with us. There are a lot of things we want to do in the watershed, but we have to have landowner cooperation. It's never going to be easy to work upstream."

During the citizens' input portion at Monday's council meeting, Jordan Hanson, a Mitchell native who believes using an aeration method to tackle Lake Mitchell's algae woes is the best route, criticized city leaders for not providing more information on an informal 2021 bid the city received from a company that recommended an $11 million aeration and enzyme algae-eating bacteria for the lake.

Everson explained to the Mitchell Republic in late June that city leaders previously explored an aeration and algae-eating bacteria plan to improve the lake's water quality through a company called EverBlue Lakes. Everson clarified EverBlue Lakes' $11 million recommendation in 2021 was an informal bid proposal and was costlier than the estimated dredging price tags at that time, which was prior to Barr Engineering's latest $25 million dredging cost estimate presented in May.

"That's $11 million to fix it over 10 years. We're not locked into that huge number. I'm just wondering, if none of you guys saw this, why this was never brought to the city's attention?" Hanson asked the council that was met with no response since it was asked during citizens input, which city officials have previously stated is not intended for question and answer format discussions. "I think this is the best route."

Lake aeration systems pump oxygen into the water with the goal of preventing phosphorus from releasing into the water column.

Hanson characterized the city's decision to pursue an estimated $25 million mechanical dredging project over the $11 million aeration plan from EverBlue Lakes as a move that honors the highest bid. The proposed mechanical dredging project has yet to go to the bidding stages.

"I hope someday someone takes this into consideration before we spend $50 million on something we can do for 20% of the cost," Hanson said. "The ongoing costs of this is only $500,000 a year, so less than half of what the ongoing costs of dredging would be, not counting the alum."

Barr Engineering designed the mechanical dredging project, but construction of the project would be done by a separate contractor through a bidding process that's yet to happen since the public vote for the dredging loan is slated for June 2024.

Everson previously said both Barr Engineering and Fyra Engineering, two separate firms that studied the lake's algae problems, did not recommend aeration as an effective strategy for the lake's algae blooms.