The St. Croix County board of supervisors voted on Tuesday evening to rescind the county’s support for a proposal to draw down Lake Mallalieu this fall. While the decision was a blow to the Lake Mallalieu Association’s efforts to remove sediment from the lake, the supervisors also made it clear they are committed to collaborative effort to address water and sediment problems.

After lengthy and impassioned comments from the public, and discussion of motions to postpone the decision, the board voted 13-6 to direct county staff to pull out of the proposal.

Supervisor Dan Schmit, who represents the North Hudson area and a large part of the Lake Mallalieu, said that even though he was only recently elected, he had tried to get up to speed on the issue.

“We’re not saying we don’t ever want this drawdown to happen, I think what we’re saying we want to be educated, we want to do the best darn thing we can do, because no one is all win or all lose out of this,” Schmit said.

Because the county is one of the owners of the Lake Mallalieu dam that would be opened up to release water from the lake, the Department of Natural Resources requires the county’s support before it will consider a drawdown application.

Supervisors said they had received too much conflicting information from different parties and didn’t believe the proposal was ready for a full evaluation.

“This is what we used to call in the Army ‘ready-shoot-aim’-style planning,” said supervisor Daniel Hansen of New Richmond. “And we should put the brakes on in my opinion and go back to the drawing board and we are not in a critical hurry for this, we are just in a want phase.”

There is still a chance that there could be a meeting of interested parties in the proposal before an application is submitted. The Lake Mallalieu Association had previously said that the DNR would only get involved with a completed application.

Jason Kjeseth, director of community development, told the board he spoke with leadership from the DNR last week and the agency said it is willing to participate in a public meeting and provide its experts, even if the full application is not submitted.

“What they were concerned about when they were communicating with the Lake Mallalieu Association is because there are four different dam owners, four municipalities if you will, that they didn’t want to have a meeting with the Lake Mallalieu Association, one with the village, one with the city,” Kjeseth told the supervisors. “They wanted to have one meeting and get some feedback from the elected officials about what kind of concerns you have or what questions you want answers to so they could bring in the appropriate staff for that meeting.”

Kjeseth said if the dam owners and interested parties could coordinate, the agency would be open to participating in an informational meeting.

Scott Counter, a board supervisor and chair of the Community Development Committee, which had recommended the board rescind its support, said recent efforts by the county to hold such a meeting had been unsuccessful.

“During our last meeting we were concerned enough that we actually invited the Lake Mallalieu Association, we would host a meeting, bring everybody to the table, look at all the facts, what alternatives could potentially be there that can do the job effectively with no detriment or as little detriment as possible,” Counter said. “Once that request came out, the Lake Mallalieu Association was not to my understanding interested in having that meeting here, which was unfortunate because I think bringing everybody to the table is the best way to do business.”

Because the drawdown would need to start by September 15 at the latest to achieve the stated goals, according to the Lake Mallalieu Association, there is little chance the proposal will move forward this year.

Voting against the drawdown were supervisors Jared Bell, Mitch Ruedubusch, Dan Schmit, Kerry Reis, Diana Delaney, Denise Shirley-Carter, Wayne Roen, Scott Counter, Daniel Hansen, Danielle McIntosh, Greg Tellijohn, Bob Swanepoel, and Jerry VanSomeren. Voting to continue the drawdown application were supervisors Dani Erickson, Dan Fosterling, Bob Feidler, Mark Carlson, Mike Barcalow, and John Betchkal.

Proposal opponents expressed concerns that drawing down the lake by 7.5 feet would result in tons of sediment being carried into Lake St. Croix, where it could contribute to growth of algae and other negative effects.

The Lake Mallalieu Association says the DNR’s temporary removal of a failing dam upstream in 2015 caused the sediment to flow down to Lake Mallalieu. The organization complains that the upper parts of the lake are now choked by mud and vegetation, infested with carp, and prone to algae blooms. A previous dredging proposal was found to be infeasible, and an attempt to do a drawdown last year also failed.