Second Little Rock Lake Drawdown Eyed for 2028

(KNSI) — Another local drawdown project may be on the horizon.

In 2019, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and around 800 landowners lowered the level of Little Rock Lake through the Mississippi River in an attempt to clean up the excessive algae blooms and increase water clarity.

Area Fisheries Manager Eric Altena tells KNSI that with the first drawdown there were “some good improvements in water quality, plant health, and everything else, some fish response, and we’re actually looking at doing another one here in 2028. We’ve already got some preliminary funding. We just have to go through the permitting process to get things going.”

This go-round will be a little different. “We’re going to try to do a short-term drawdown for the entire system and install a temporary cofferdam-style dam that can be easily deflated. Basically, it’s a water tube, and it would be installed pretty much right there at Highway 10 and isolate the lake from the river portion. That would allow us to do a longer-term drawdown for the lake itself, which would really have some larger-scale benefits. We’re probably going to have a meeting to get all the residents at least informed on the process and what we’re thinking about.”

Altena’s gut is telling him residents would be in favor of the drawdown since it has a short-term influence on the river for longer-term benefits in terms of fish and ecosystem health. He explains good water quality is “primary when you think about anything related to fishing quality or the river in general. We want it to be healthy. Honestly, it’s the lifeblood of the United States, and we happen to have it start right here in our state. We’re very fortunate to have such an awesome resource right in our backyards.”

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