Hawk Lake Pollution 1959  

Thousand of Fish Die; Lake In Uproar over Polution

Thousands of Fish Die; Entire Area Smells to High Heaven

Editor, Citizen:

The pride of our very progressive Culver community was severly shattered again this past week by the reg ular recurrance of a combination of existing conditions which annually plagues the fish life and the desidreable plant life in our once very pop ular little lake, gnerally referred to as Hawk Lake.

There is an air of mystery in competence, and neglect There is an air of mystery, incompentence, and neglect surrounds the whole affair; that is, to everyone execpt those eight or ten families whose homes are located on the shores of Hawk Lake.

These residents awoke up last Thursday morning to find what seemed to be millions of dead minnows and hundreds of thousands of dead fish floating along the shores - bloating and rotting in the heat of the morning sun.

By noon the odor was positively unbearable !

All homes were closed up tightly and women and children confined indoors.

More fish, floundering and dying, could be sen all across the lake. This was doomed to widen the row of floating dead along the shore, already two and three feet wide in spots.

There have been complaints from time to time about offensive odors from farms adjoining our community. Houwever those, or even the Chiccago stockyards stench, cannot compare with the smell we now have bordering our town on the south.

A Shamefull Situation
This shamef ul and deplorable situation exists because of a cobinatiom of events happening sim ultaneously in our Community.

The usual dry midsummer heat has caused water levels in Lake Maxinkuckee re recede to a point at which no fresh atwer flows over the outlet dam into Hawk Lake.

This causes Hawk Lake to become temporarily a stagnant body of water which in itself would cause no damage. However, since out Culver sewage plant also has been feeding a water supply into Hawk Lake for the last seven years, a consition has developed which causes extra fertilization to obnoxious plants in the lake causing it to grow more rapidly.

This smother out desierable plant life which is more favorable to the protection and survival of fish life.

The result is too little oxygen in the water for fish to exist. This condition is not too severe as long as fresh water from the large Lake Maxinkuckee continues to flow over the dam into the smalle lake.

Added to these conditions to further aggravate the situation is the fact that our town sewage plant is utilized by approximately 2,000 more people during the summer months. The Culver Military Adacemy Summer School students and their instructors practically doubles the through-put.

The fact that this situation exists has been recognized and acknowledged by personnel of all agencies which should be concerned about problems of this nature, and who should have the authority to act positively to alleviate such undesirable condtions. Board of Health, the County Health Officer, the State Waterway Department, the Director of Water Resources, the County Conseration Officer, the local Connservation club, and the Culver Town Board.

The results: a feeble or no attempt at all to actually correct the basic problem.

This is a very serious problem facing this community and it should not be accepted lightly by any citizen.

It has existed for the past several years and is worsening each year. It will continue to exist because the large lake not only supplies fresh water to the small lake bvut also fish, and each fish that leaves the large lake is doomed to die the following summer in the small lake.

An Unsanitary Mess
Fram a health standpoint it is a terrifying thought for those who live so close to the water's edge with their little children. However, the health of those folks who line in Culver is also placed in jeopardy by this unsanitary mess.

The big question is: When are the people of this community going to rise to the occasion and demand of the proper authoritites that positive action be be taken to solve porblems such as these?

We have many organizational benefactors operating in our community who are constantly trying to promote the welfare of the community and its citizens. Why has such a worthy caise as this been overlooked?

The folks who suffer most in this deplorable instance are those ten families who reside on Hawk Lake. They were finally given a special permit last Friday to contruct a temporary dirt dam, at their own expense, in the outlet of the little lake. This will give temporary relief because it will rais the water level in the little lake about two feet.

However, at this time the only supply of water going into Hawk Lake is Culver sewage water. This community has been most firtunate at this partic ular time in that the weather has been quite cool and we have had some rain fal. Otherwise, the horrible odors would have nee very much worse and unbearably sickening.

Even when water did not come from the big lake in the past, there was not trouble with the fish in the little lake dying until the last three years since the sewage disposal plant was put in.

Construction of A Dam
The expense invovled in the construction of this dam is considerable and these folks should recieve some financial relief because this entire condition is not of their making. The people of Culver are responsible for this discracef ul situtaion and they, and the C.M.A., should voluntarily conotribute to this expense.

The Chamber of Commerce in this new brochure describes our town as follows: "Culver is a thriving and friendly town. It extneds to all a large and warm welcome. No scene in all or and is more enchanting and heartwarming with a sence of progressive spirit and atmosphere of modern living."

Certainly there should be a feeling of price in every citizen of such a town. But that pride will surley be retarded and possibly destroyed when thos who visit our community find they are confronted with such filth and stench as they enter our little city.

The real solution of the problem is to construct a tile ditch extending from our sewage outlet around Hawk Lake and into its outlet. This is additional expense tot he town but it is the only just solution to the existing problem. - 22 Jul 1959


Thousand of Fish Die; Lake In Uproar over Polution

Thousands of Fish Die; Entire Area Smells to High Heaven
(Headline of last week's (citizen)

Here are the unbelieveable pictures promised in last week's paper. What is the town of Culver and Union Township going to do about this deplorable condition? - 29 Jul 1959