Alternative View of the Butler Lake Rehabilitation

I have the article from Mark Kirk's speech at the ceremony prior to the dredging at Butler Lake. He actually says the words "recreational amenity for Lake County." He also talks about canoeing, kayaking and even windsurfing, which I actually used to be able to do on Butler Lake.

The Herald's story on June 21st failed to even scratch the surface of the most disappointing and mismanaged project that I have ever witnessed first-hand. Living along the southern (ignored) bank of Butler Lake, I watched the operations on daily basis, and being an engineer who has been involved in comparable restorations, could not comprehend the incompetence and incompleteness of all aspects of the restoration.

When it was announced that the work was complete, and the sediment pipeline was being removed, everyone in town was confused. The lake actually looked worse than it did before the work began. Weeds and lily pads are worse now than they were before the work started, a fact that even the Village of Libertyville has confessed to me.

We understood why the grassy shores were being replaced with natural vegetation, but why only on the favored northeast corner? The entire south rim is now dead, foul smelling, decaying cattails.

The low bidder for the project had understaffed and under-equipped the project from the start. A pipeline was installed that was to convey the bottom soot to a landfill. The undersized pumper boat was comical as it strained for over a year to mostly convey water over a half mile through an improperly sized pipe for its horsepower. The dredging (suctioning) work was limited to a small area again near the preferred northeast corner of the lake, and halted abruptly. We were told by the village that "funds ran out." Huh?

Several of us have taken it upon ourselves to begin cleaning the south and western shorelines. It is unfortunate that the shoreline restorations have now been titled "The Burying of Butler Lake." At one time we could see the water's edge and even get our boat and windsurf rudders through light weeds, we now cannot even access the very small patch of open northern edge water because of the density and size of the weeds. Little can be done about the water quality since the pollution is not coming from the former grassy shorelines but rather the extensive and increasing storm sewer pipelines that discharge into the lake, including all of the bordering streets and parking lots. Clean water would be a massive stormwater management project. Much easier to kill grass and grow weeds, as a token demonstration of sedimentation trapping.

A new campaign called Bring Back Butler (BBB) has begun. If things work out for us, we'll give Dan Seals the press clipping from Kirk's historic address and start all over again. Thanks for nothing.

Mark McDowell

Libertyville