Where It All Began
Caring about our watersheds is the core of No Coast Social Club and has been a core of the Brothers as we’ve grown up. Our parents had us on the water from a young age all over Eastern Iowa. I learned to waterski at the age of four on an American Skier with a barefoot boom down on the Des Moines River in Keosauqua (Fun Fact: Keosauqua translates to “big bend” which is exactly what the Des Moines River does at this point in its flow).
We stayed tied to the watersheds for a long time, and eventually, I found myself at a local bar talking to someone about it. He turned to me and said, “I think you should meet my buddy, Jon.” Jon is the president of Friends of Coralville Lake, a non-profit based in North Liberty, Iowa. After a round of drinks and a Zoom call (this was late 2020) with the rest of the board, I was voted in and a few months later nominated and elected vice president of the 501(c)3. It’s been a crazy journey that led a national publication, Lake Line, to reach out to us. I was tapped to write the article and I think it sums up the issues facing not only Coralville Lake but other lakes around the country. Enjoy the read, and support your local non-profit and scientific resources!
The below was published in the Summer 2022 in the journal, Lake Line, which focuses on sedimentation. I was the author of this paper.
A Volunteer Group’s Journey to Save a Vital Local Resource
Introduction
“Hey, I can actually see my wakeboard!” I said to my dad from the platform of our ski boat, ready to get in for my first set of the day. Even though it was only knee-deep, my bright red and green wakeboard could faintly be seen through the brown water of Coralville Lake. “First time for everything!” he yelled back as I slipped into the cool late May water.
Coralville Lake starts in central Johnson County, Iowa, a few miles north of Iowa City. It winds its way north and west for about 26 miles, following the path carved by the Iowa River. The dam that created the lake was built between 1946 and 1958 as part of the Army Corps of Engineers’ larger plan for the Mississippi River Basin to control flooding throughout the center of the country. Although recreation was not part of its original use, the locals recognize the lake now as a recreational draw for the growing communities around it.
As with all reservoir systems, silt becomes an issue over time. For those of us who call the lake our second home, the silt is a part of our lives. It is also cause for concern that many of us did not realize was such a large problem until just the past few years.
The Founding of Friends of Coralville Lake
In 2016 our organization’s founder, Derrick Parker, was approached by the Army Corp of Engineers (ACE) and asked to form a group of volunteers to work alongside the ACE on projects that they were not able to address due to limitations in their charter. That was the founding of Friends of Coralville Lake (FoCL) Over the next few years, Derrick met and recruited many like-minded folks who wanted to help preserve the lake and the recreation opportunities around it.
Six years later, we are a certified 501(c)(3) non-profit with a dozen or so members. We have managed a few smaller projects including the restoration of a Veterans Memorial Trail and fishing pier for the public to use, as well as an annual Halloween Trail. In 2019 we held a strategic retreat led by our new president, Jon Kounkel that shifted our focus. We realized that if we are truly the Friends of Coralville Lake, we need to have a primary focus on the water.
We knew there were issues with the lake, with a majority coming in the form of silt and runoff. The Iowa River basin is primarily farmland that is mixed-used between row crops and livestock, and it stretches across two million acres of flat and sometimes rolling Iowa countryside. Since everything eventually flows into the Lake, it was becoming a trap for more sediment than we ever expected. We all knew the northern stretches of the lake were almost unnavigable, with depths between one to two feet, it was not safe to go there unless you knew exactly where the channel was. A new study was about to tell exactly how dire the situation was.
Buried Under Miles of Mud and Muck
At the end of 2019, we got the stat line of stat lines. An average of 1,300 cubic feet of sediment was filling the Lake every year, with some years as much as 1,800 cubic feet (Engineers, 2021). The average alone is more than two Empire State Buildings! The normal lake pool sits at 683 feet above sea level. By the year 2049, the elevation below 680 feet will be completely filled in with sediment, and most, if not all, recreation activities will not be possible. In other words, the lake would cease to exist in its current state.
If you were to ask the ACE, this is expected. According to the original charter, the average life for a reservoir project of this size is 50-75 years with no plan for extending the life beyond (Meyer, 1977). With the initial charter only covering flood control and drought mitigation, there is little the ACE can or will do. The storage of the lake remains relatively unchanged and is even offset by the erosion of shorelines above the 683’ pool allowing for more storage.
Although the worst of the sediment is settling at the North end of the lake, it is already cutting off access to one of the three marinas on the lake. The second is in danger of losing access for the larger vessels. In these areas, just in the past decade, they have seen lake depths go from about 10 feet to as little as 6 inches across the width of the lake. Knowing where the original channel is in those areas is vital to keeping transoms and props in proper working condition. The areas shown in red, brown, and yellow show the most troublesome areas of 2019 when the report was released. Unofficially, it’s gotten much worse in the past three years since the samples were taken.
Crash Courses in Watershed Management
FoCL is the first group to come right and say that we are not watershed experts. We are a group of very concerned water enthusiasts, and we acknowledge this often. But we knew we had to start working on something as soon as possible. We started reaching out to anyone who would talk to us about the issue and building a framework.
Our first goal, knowing how daunting the challenges were going to be, was to look internally at FoCL and make sure we were built correctly as an organization. We enlisted the help of a local marketing firm, Amperage, that specializes in non-profits. We started the process of conducting a feasibility study to look at FoCL and also go into the public and see the appetite to fix this kind of problem.
Secondly, we needed a partner that knew more about this than we did. Enter Impact 7G. A locally owned and run engineering firm with expertise in small and large watersheds with experience working with non-profits and government agencies alike. We knew fixing this problem was going to be a big-budget item but didn’t know exactly how much. They were able to outline the costs we would encounter along the way and prepare us for the sticker shock that was sure to come.
But none of this would be possible without input and cooperation from the community. That’s why in the Fall of 2021 we gathered with those that had a large stake in the lake (local cities, state representatives, county board members, university experts, marinas, and businesses) and presented this information to them with the help of the ACE. After the presentation of the data showing the lake disappearing, you could have heard a pin drop. There was plenty of concern, many questions, and a lot of confusion. How could it have gotten this far?
Luckily, FoCL is good at meeting people and bringing them to our cause. One member of the audience had experience setting up Watershed Management Authorities (WMA) throughout the state and was eager to help us start the process for the Iowa River. We got instant buy-in from the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, as well as the cities of Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty. They understood just how important the lake is to the county, not just for recreation, but in revenue. Coralville Lake directly impacts almost 600 jobs in the county and brings in an estimated $76 Million to the local economy every year (Hocheol Jeon, 2016). The WMA for the entire Iowa River would have been the largest single WMA in the state. The decision was made to break it up into a Middle Iowa Watershed and work with surrounding management authorities on resources and contacts. We had gas in the engine, but the trip was far from over.
Outreach and Networking
In the next few weeks word got out through local newspaper sources that were in attendance. After being picked up by the local news and Iowa Public Radio, we started to get a lot more attention. But we were left with a lot of “What Now?” and “What can we do?” questions. As a non-profit, we cannot sit on a WMA Board, it is exclusively for government agencies. A majority of our income came from selling firewood in the summer months, so there wasn’t a project we could dig into right away.
What we would do is support the formation of the WMA and explore how to get our name out to the public. We started a bi-monthly newsletter, began a steady social media posting campaign, went to the local boat and outdoor shows, and even attended soil and water lectures to learn more about the cause of the problems. We were able to secure funding from the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to begin the feasibility study and get an action plan put together from Impact 7G. The action plan alone gave us a 5-year roadmap for getting larger projects started. It outlines grants that can be applied for, who and how to do them correctly, and when to look for them. You’d have thought we’d won the lottery holding that twenty-page report!
In the middle of the pandemic, it was hard to gather or plan events. Luckily, we have been able to start planning for gatherings in our area. We are planning on music events, fundraising walks, bike rides, and swims, and even bringing back our popular Halloween Trail with the goal of raising money for small shoreline projects.
Full Throttle
One thing we struggled with during the past few years was keeping an eye on the end goal. We knew this wasn’t going to be a quick fix. The small victories and baby steps make it worth it for us. It keeps us pushing forward. We know there is a lot more at stake than just a recreational lake. This is just one example among many man-made resources that are vital to the communities, the natural life around the lake, and the future of the area. We have an opportunity to make a huge difference in the lives of thousands of people and even more wildlife. We may not have all the answers today, but that won’t stop us from working to find them together. Someday we hope that only seeing more than knee-deep isn’t as rare as it is today.
Works Cited
Engineers, U. A. (2021). Report of Sedimentation 2019 Resurvey. Rock Island, IL.
Hocheol Jeon, Y. J. (2016). A Report to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University.
Meyer, H. L. (1977). Coralville Lake Resource Master Plan. Rock Island, Illinois: US Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District.
Thanks for reading this far. Any questions can be sent to us at NoCoastSocialClub@gmail.com. Until then, See You At The Cove!
