A normally 9-foot-deep, 26-acre lake northeast of the Twin Cities is now mostly a dry lake bed, and nearly all of its fish have died, after a valve malfunctioned and caused water to drain out over the weekend.
Park staff opened a valve last month at Alice Lake, a man-made lake and popular fishing destination in Minnesota’s William O’Brien State Park, because heavy rain had caused water levels to rise.
“At that time, with the elevated lake level, water was beginning to overflow from the lake into the St. Croix River, raising erosion concerns,” the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said in a statement on Monday.
The controlled draining is a routine procedure, officials said, and it had successfully addressed the erosion issue. On Saturday, park staff returned to close the valve.
But they could not do so.
“We discovered the closure mechanism had failed, and the valve was stuck open,” officials said in the statement. This resulted in a “near total water level drawdown.”
Alice Lake is usually stocked with a variety of fish, including bluegill, black crappie, largemouth bass, northern pike, walleye, yellow perch and bullhead, according to the department of natural resources.
But nearly all of the fish in the lake have died, and state officials said that it would take at least one month for the water to be restored.
Many park visitors over the weekend and on Monday were seen carrying dying fish out of the remaining shallow water to try to move them to the St. Croix River, about 50 feet away. It is unclear how many were saved, but officials referred to a “fish kill” in the lake, meaning that most of them had died.
Lake Alice was created in the early 1960s as a children’s fishing pond, because the nearby St. Croix River had currents and steep banks that were not safe for children. The lake’s source is groundwater.
Officials said that they would offer a preliminary assessment by the end of this week and a timeline.
“Visitors should be aware,” the park said on its website, “that only a stream remains on Lake Alice at this time.”
Adeel Hassan, a New York-based reporter for The Times, covers breaking news and other topics.
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