6-2000-12801-2

STATE OF MINNESOTA

OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

FOR THE MINNESOTA DEPARTMNENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

In the Matter of Determining the Ordinary High Water Level of Goose Lake, Which is in Waconia Township, Carver County, and Establishing and Maintaining Water Levels

RECORD OF SITE VISIT

On Friday, June 2, the evidentiary hearing concluded and, pursuant to a prior agreement among all parties, a site visit to Goose Lake and its environs occurred. Participating in the site visit were the three attorneys, Scott Timm, Peter Tester and William Peterson, as well as interested persons Jane Wolf, Kevin Hanson and his wife, and Wayne Waldera. During the site visit, which lasted approximately two hours, the Administrative Law Judge recorded his observations at each of the four locations which were visited. Set forth below are those observations.

First, we gathered in Keith Hanson’s yard, and then we got in two cars and went down to the outlet structure. The outlet structure is smaller than I expected; it’s nothing of any size at all. It turns out that there were concrete skirts built, sometime after the original dam was put in, and one of those concrete skirts has broken into two pieces and fallen into the drainage way leading up from the lake to the dam. There was some suggestion during the hearing that maybe that concrete had been put into the drainage way intentionally, but it doesn’t look like it at all. It looks like just a plain old falling-in. From the structure, we walked down a little bit further to the south and went out and looked at the lake. Just had a good look from the lake. You could see all the way to the public access into Mr. Farnes’s property from there.

At Dressen’s, we walked down to the eastern point where the waterskiers have their dock and then out along the shoreline to the west to a second point. There are rocks exposed there. Near this second point there is a quite noticeable toe and bank arrangement that really fits the definition well. It is about 15 feet from the current water line and a good five or six feet from the vegetation line, the current vegetation line. I’d say the current vegetation line is now six feet from the water, so it doesn’t add up quite to 15, but it’s in that range. The main vegetation line is six feet from the water, and there is a secondary vegetation line which is, I’d say, three or four feet from the water, but that’s much more young reeds and shorter grasses.

We then drove to the public access and there really wasn’t much to see there, just the gauge. You could see stains on the gauge where the water had been higher, but we have better evidence than looking at stains on a gauge. There really wasn’t much else there.

At Farnes’s place, we looked at two areas. The first area is to the west and south. And that area got quite muddy and wet as we drove towards the lake. We didn’t get too close to the lake at all because it was pretty muddy and I was afraid of getting stuck. There were distinct ruts there. Then we went north, around a point, and came to the area just opposite of the Dressen’s and the waterskiers’ boat. This area is a big meadow, and it’s relatively flat. Surely, if the lake got up to 973, this meadow would be totally flooded. If it got up, I would say, to two and a half feet from the current height (which I think is 967.8), the lake would flood much of this area. Mr. Farnes said it was used for pasture and it would definitely be flooded. It doesn’t appear to me that it’s been used for pasture for a while at least, because there aren’t a lot of cow pies around, or other signs of cattle. But regardless of that, 970.3 would definitely flood a large percentage of this meadow. There is a noticeable line of trees which could have been the 973 level, or 974.

After viewing Farnes’ place, we drove back to Hanson’s and that ended the site visit. I left Hanson’s around 2:20 p.m.

AWK