Minutes - Council - 06/09/1998 - Public Hearing

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The water level of the Rum fiver during the year can vary widely. Just as there is typically a period of high water and flooding in the spring, there are typically periods of low water and dryness in the summer and fall. For example, the typical river level during a significant part of the open water season is so Iow that almost any watercraft wake produced never even gets the chance to reach the normal river bank, much less an opportunity to try and erode it. Instead, the wake dissipates harmlessly on the sand or mud of the now exposed edge of the river bottom. This is currently the situation and has been for the last couple of weeks, at least on my part of the river. And unless we get a lot more rain around here or North toward the river's source at Mille Lacs lake, the situation will likely continue for most of the rest of the open water season presenting little or no opportunity for a watercraft wake to impact the actual riverbank.. Another natural phenomenon that periodically occurs on the river involves the wind. There are days when the wind is blowing hard enough and at an optimum angle that windswept waves are cleated that lap up against the shoreline for hours or even days at a time with the potential to cause erosion. An individual wake from a watercraft rarely lasts but a minute or two at most on a river as narrow as the Rum and lasts even less during the lower water periods like now when the river is even narrower. I would contend that if you were to add up the cumulative time that watercraft wakes from any open water season are impacting any particular stretch of shoreline along the Rum, the total time involved would pale in comparison to the weeks of high water, fast current and windswept waves that go on naturally 24 hours a day, day after day for extended periods during the year.. It would appear that those who have originated this ordinance have chosen to forget about or dismiss altogether these rather obvious and basic facts about fiver Geology. Instead, they would have us take a giant leap to the dubious conclusion and assumption that because some watercraft are occasionally speeding by and creating wakes, it must then follow that these wakes are to blame for causing the abnormal "erosion prone spots" on the fiver. What we are overwhelmingly dealing with here are the forces of Nature which, most of the time, are beyond our control. Once again, ask the people in Grand Forks or those who dealt with the Mississippi in 1993. The idea of a no-wake zone designed to control erosion on the Rum fiver along the entire length of Andover and Ramsey, pardon the phrase, doesn't hold water and is not a good idea. At best, it is a well-intentioned misinterpretation of the natural world. The many bends and turns of the Rum fiver make it a wonderful river for canoeing and floating down in the Summer--new scenery around every turn. I take advantage of the canoeing and floating opportunities along with many others I see drifting by each summer. In 1978, the Rum, was designated a Wild and Scenic River by the Dept. of Natural Resources. This designation meant restrictions on development and those restrictions have no doubt helped to keep the river closer to its present "natural" state than most metro rivers. I think that's fine. I doubt however, that it would do much for the Wild and Scenic experience to canoe around a turn and have to encounter a "no-wake" buoy--not exactly the scenery that I would be eagerly anticipating. It is the view of myself and others that proponents of this ordinance are "barking up the wrong tree" and shooting at the wrong target by pointing their fingers at boat owners and fishermen as