The Pierce County Finance & Personnel Committee voted unanimously Nov. 6 in support of spending $2.3 million of the county’s retained ARPA funds on the Nugget Lake dredging project.

County Park Superintendent Travis Campbell said the county’s only inland lake, located north of Plum City, is a central attraction for visitors and campers, who bring in revenue for local businesses.

“Nugget Lake is nearly two miles long and lies in a steep valley,” Campbell said. “The upper end of the lake is filing up with sediment.”

Only electric motors are allowed in the man-made impoundment, and weed growth is restricting access to the lake. A portion of the main channel is only 1.5 feet deep, Campbell said, which is impeding boat traffic. It’s too shallow for the weed harvester to operate without dragging on bottom and creates dangerous conditions for ice fishing, as the water flows too close to the ice’s surface.

“Two winters ago a truck went through the ice,” Campbell said.

In April 2022, the county board approved a resolution relating to Phase 1 of the proposed dredge project, spending $119,426 for engineering services for planning and permitting. Geosyntac Consultants have met multiple times with park staff and the Department of Natural Resources and have completed plans, designs and cost estimates.

“The firm estimates that 100,000 cubic yards of sediment can be removed from the lake bed,” Campbell said. “That’s about 6,000 quad axle dump truck loads.”

A necessary portion of the project is having a place to put the sediment once it has been dredged. The county has a verbal agreement with a landowner on the west side of the park to spread the sediment on a 113-acre field. A cover crop would then be planted to prevent erosion.

“It’s the shortest feasible route out of the valley in which the lake lies,” Campbell said.

The project is estimated to cost $2,385,709 in total, though the county is looking for a grant from the DNR totaling $237,000, said County Administrator Jason Matthys. The work would be completed in the winter and would remove three times the sediment that was removed in 2006-07.

Land Conservation Director Rod Webb said his department has been working on plans at the north endof the park to prevent streambank erosion.

“The engineer is going to propose widening a spot near the boat landing to be a sediment trap,” Webb said. “It’s kind of a natural trap there that we can access with smaller equipment so that we can dredge it ourselves. The DNR allows it under normal boat landing maintenance.”

The resolution will go before the county board for consideration at a future meeting.  

Proposed court facility

The committee voted to recommend hiring Ehlers Public Finance Advisors as a consultant in the bonding process for a potential new court facility.