27-02-2025
Bill to help clean up McCook Lake dies in committee
UNION COUNTY, S.D. (KCAU) — South Dakota House Bill 1108 would have created a contingency fund for the restoration of McCook Lake. However, the bill was sent to the 41st day by the House Appropriations Committee, killing the proposal.
McCook Lake is a state-owned lake, and the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks (GFP) is in charge of cleaning the lake. GFP hasn't even done an assessment of the damage yet, though, so the cost of restoration isn't known yet.
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'The progress in terms of cleaning up McCook Lake has been very slow,' McCook Lake Association President Dirk Lohry said. 'It's been eight months since we had this flood on June 23. The Game, Fish, and Parks, which is now in charge of the lake's restoration has been very slow in terms of getting anything done. Their first step is to get a scope of what it takes to get the clean-up done. Once they get the scope done, which is supposed to be next week, but we're crossing our fingers.'
Once GFP gets done with its assessment of the damage to McCook Lake, they will take bids on the restoration. The concern with the McCook Lake Association is that they don't know how much restoration GFP is going to do and they don't know the cost or if they will need extra money, which HB 1108 would have addressed.
'The importance of this bill is we aren't real sure what their scope is going to be,' Lohry said. 'It could be to bring the lake back to where it was before, or they could just say it kind of looks fine. Having a tree out in the middle of the lake is kind of natural and we don't think we need to do much of anything other than to just surface, types of things. So that has us concerned.'
According to the association, because of the slow progress, one concern is the usability of the lake. Right now, it's not clear if the lake will be usable this summer.
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'Our problem is this lake drains every year, and we'd like to fill it up again and make the lake usable,' Lohry said. 'All of our house values have dropped because there's not a usable lake here. We would like to have a usable lake this summer.'
According to South Dakota State Representative William Sharma, who represents McCook Lake, the hope is that once GFP finishes its assessment and the cost of restoration is known, if more money is needed, they can try again next year to get the bill passed.
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