It may look like fun right now, but don’t walk on the exposed lake bottom at Lake Louise on the lower Kinnickinnic River at historic Powell Falls. If you sink into the muck—and it doesn’t take much—you’ll be extremely hard pressed to climb your way back out again, especially if the muck is up to your waist.

“We’re just reminding people to stay out of the lake bed,” said River Falls Municipal Utilities Director Kevin Westhuis on Monday. “It’s mucky and dangerous.”

The planned drawdown of Lake Louise by the City of River Falls started Friday October 2 and is being done in conjunction with theWisconsin DNR as well as a dam inspection group from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), after the dam on the lake’s south end sustained damage in the summer flooding on June 29, 2020. Located on the lower falls of the Kinnickinnic River adjacent to Glen Park, Lake Louise was mostly drained as of Monday with the river reportedly “starting to cut” as the lake bed was exposed to sight, a dam further upstream at Junction Falls creating Lake George was undamaged in the summer flooding and will not be drained at present, Westhuis said.

“The main impetus for it (draining Lake Louise) is so we can inspect the Powell Falls Dam which was damaged in late June,” Westhuis said, adding that the lake would remain drained over the winter months and then be reassessed next year, with the decision of what to do made by May. A natural trout stream, the ultimate plan is to restore the Kinnnickinnic to its natural condition, and that means an added variable to the drawdown: depending on whether or not the cost-benefit analysis adds up, the City of River Falls might not refill Lake Louise, given that it plans to remove the dam for it by 2026 in order to restore the trout stream’s natural flow. Westhuis wasn’t sure just when the dam holding back the lake above Powell Falls was first built, but the water has been stopped up for a while.

“We started generating electricity in 1900,” Westhuis said of the dam further upstream at Junction Falls. Now in the middle of relicensing with FERC, the City is looking to “surrender” the Powell Falls dam while keeping the one at Junction Falls for now. Westhuis said that the decision of just what to do and when will be made by the City of River Falls in conjunction with local stakeholders, the Wisconsin DNR, and FERC, among others.

“These are going to be difficult decisions moving forward,” he said of the decision of whether to repair the dam and refill Lake Louise or else retire the old dam and remove it early. When in full operation, the artificial water wall on the site of Powell Falls is currently able to generate approximately 125 Kilowatt hours of electricity, or enough to power 60 homes for one year. With dams being seen by many a thing of the past, whether to make the switch to a free flowing river now or later is still up in the air. But when it finally does come?

“There’s a couple of ways to regenerate,” Westhuis said of the area around the river when the lake and dam is finally removed. One is naturally from seeds in the lakebed, while the other is artificially, using a drone to fly over the area and “seed” it from above. Though not stated as such by Westhuis, this second option effectively speeds up an otherwise natural process whereby aviary flyers-by will sometimes drop undigested plant seeds from the air along with nitrogen-rich refuse. These plant seeds then take root and sprout upward when the conditions become ripe. For now though, just stay off the mucky lake bed at Lake Louise—at least until it’s less moist and so firmer, able to support a human’s weight without incurring dangerous complications—never mind the potential for bird poop.

Photo from the City of River Falls Facebook page.