Lake County Water Quality Committee Meeting

Minutes of February 24, 2011

DSU Madison, SD 57042

 

The meeting was called to order by Melissa Christianson at 7pm.  Members present were: Martin Jarrett, Terry Ryan, Gene Hexom, Craig Johannsen, Dale Droge, Cory Heidelberger, Jan Nicolay and Melissa Christianson.  Others present were: Kay Schmidt, Mike Phelps, Duane Phelps, Todd Kays, Deb Reinicke, and Shelli Gust. 

 

The meeting began with a presentation from Shelli Gust on the revised Lake County Zoning Ordinance.  Shelli is the legal assistant from the State’s Attorney’s office.  Following the presentation, a question and answer session was held which we discussed the following items:

1.       Abandoned well definition.  Currently reads as “Abandoned Well. A water producing well which is no longer regularly used and maintained, or

·         is in such disrepair that one of the two (2) following criteria are met:

·         1) Groundwater can no longer be obtained from it; or

·         2) It represents a direct conduit for surface contaminants to enter the aquifer/ground water source.”

2.       Who is affected by the ordinance and who should vote?  Everyone registered to vote in Lake County should vote.  The areas within Lake County that are unincorporated will be (directly) affected by the ordinance.

3.       Zoning officers duties were updated to reflect duties he/she may have regardless if the ordinance passes.

4.       The revised ordinance increases the number of permitted uses and conditional uses for property owners.

After the zoning session, the following items were discussed.  There was discussion about putting an article in the newspaper addressing environmental activities in the county.  Dr. Droge was going to comment on the pledge of $7500 from the Lake Madison Development Association to help pay for the cost of the water and bacteria monitoring program.  Jan Nicolay would provide information about the phosphorus and bacteria sampling and number of sites at Lake Brandt.  Terry Ryan suggested we post the minutes from our meetings on the LMDA website, and provide an article of environmental significance in the Lake News.

Our next meeting will be held at DSU on March 24th at 7pm.