Removing the Estabrook Park Dam is a terrible idea.
In his letter printed January 1st, Stopping rivers is bad for the environment,Tim
Vargo stated that dams interfere with the natural movement of  sediment. I believe
that Mr. Vargo has oversimplified the situation and used generalizations that are not supported by common sense, facts, water testing, or sound environmental ideals for this reach of the Milwaukee River.


Losing the Estabrook Park Dam would cost Milwaukee County exponentially more than repairing it.(tens of millions at least)  This is the largest inland lake in Milwaukee County. Why lose this historical and recreational gem? The area has often been hit by floods; why lose this important flood control defense? The methodology and resultant dumping during past dam removals, if scrutinized, would likely violate the Great Lakes Compact law and could imperil Milwaukee County to damage lawsuits from the riparian owners, who have water rights according to the Prior Appropriation Doctrine. The watercourse has been at the same normal water level throughout history, but for the past 72 years the Estabrook dam has provided control to avoid catastrophic flood and infrastructure damage. Let’s not ruin it.
The dam was built by the CCC, WPA and other federal agencies in the late  1930s primarily for flood control and secondarily for recreational use. The project channelized the Milwaukee River in a marshy area on  the northern area of Milwaukee County which had previously been plagued by frequent severe flooding. Islands and park areas were built up using the excess soil. More than 6000 linear feet of rock was blasted out to form a retention reservoir and the dam was then installed to raise the river back to its historical natural water level in times of low flood risk. To prevent ice build up
and bridge damage, the water is lowered prior to each winter and raised each spring.
When considering water quality, Mr. Varga might consider the toxins within
the sediment and where they go when they are washed  downstream. Mr. Varga referred to wetlands in which fish and plants benefit  from the  nutrients; he must not realize there are no downstream natural wetlands from this reach of river to Lake Michigan. There is, however, a huge confined disposal facility within the harbor, filled with the toxic sediment that has washed downstream and was dredged from the harbor floor. The Estabrook Impoundment is not natural, but to most closely imitate nature, we shouldn’t take out the dam. Doing  so would cause the water upstream to drop 4 feet below the natural level. It would be better to continue to slow the flow, as
the natural wetlands did, to avoid scouring thousands of tons of toxins into Lake Michigan and our drinking water. It is estimated that the sediment load resulting from the
removal of the North Avenue Dam alone dumped more than 300,000 tons of contaminated sediment into the lake. Satellite photos show the 200-mile-long recurring
plumes in

Lake Michigan. In the recent past, at least five other major dams have been removed from the Milwaukee River. The removal of each caused tons of toxins to flow downstream. The Estabrook Park Dam affects hundreds of homes, many of which have been flooded numerous times, and they definitely do not benefit from flooding. In
Our urban area we must intelligently balance human requirements
While encouraging safe, healthy environmental growth.



I
have lived on the river since 1986 and can attest that Mr.
Varga’s
claims of mosquito infestations caused by the dam are not
true; many
suburban areas without streams or ponds have far worse
mosquito
infestations. On the other hand, cryptosporidium and
cladophora
outbreaks have been linked to the nutrients washed into the
lake
accelerated by unnatural scouring of the sediments that
were
unleashed by the numerous dam removals in past years. Fish
habitat
and spawning grounds have been choked beneath the toxic
silt.
Cladophora closed our beaches and Cryptosporidium sickened
403,000
Milwaukeeans, killing some. Don’t be fooled by the
eco-speak.. Look
to the North Avenue Dam; the crumbled bank stabilization
didn’t last
a decade, sections of tattered rubble are leaching poison
downstream.
Graffiti covers the remnants of discarded structures and
noxious
weeds cover the former riverbed. This type of
“environmental
improvement” has no place in in our lake, drinking
water,
backyards, or parks.



So
you can verify some of my statements, I have provided a few
of our
thousands of references:


The
sediment plume can be verified by looking at these two
articles as
well as many others:
Scientists
puzzle over huge plume along lake’s southern shores,
Milwaukee Journal 6/18/96



Development
of Recurrent Coastal Plume in Lake Michigan Observed for
First Time
Eos,
Transactions, American Geophysical Union, Vol. 77, No. 35,
August 27,
1996, Pages 337, 338



Photos
and captions of the 6000 lineal feet of rock removal to
form the
channel can be found in:
Milwaukee
County Parks
by Laurie Muench Albano p. 98-‘104 [I
would be glad to forward copies of the photos]



The
Cladophora Cryptosporidium links can be checked at:



NRDC
Warns Milwaukee Water Contamination Not An Isolated Problem
US
Newswire 4/9/1993



Great
Lakes Water Institute Cladophora
Harvey
Bootsma,
John
Janssen

“Work
on the Milwaukee River indicates that input of the nutrient
most
likely to foster Cladophora
growth, phosphorus, has increased in recent years.”
http://www.glwi.uwm.edu/research/aquaticecology/cladophora/




The
Bay View Compass vol 5 issue 3, March 2008
On
the trail of waterborne pathogens
http://www.glwi.uwm.edu/features/news/documents/080301_Pathogens.pdf




Wikipedia, Milwaukee Cryptosporidium outbreak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Cryptosporidium_outbreak



We welcome further questions.