Last September the US Fish and Wildlife Service began a safety study on the spillway at Little Grassy Lake. After they lowered the lake they announced they were draining the lake due to safety concerns.
Several camps are located around the lake. WSIU's visited the lake to see the progress and talk with SIU's Touch of Nature to find out how this will impact the center.
Brian Croft is the Director of SIU's Touch of Nature Outdoor Education Center. He says Touch of nature's mission is to enhance the lives of all people through outdoor experiences. They offer camps, trails, and programs for people to get into nature. That looks a little different for them now since Little Grassy Lake is being drained. He pointed out a dock sitting on dirt at the end of a boat ramp - what used to be the camp's beach - or what used to be their beach since the US Fish and Wildlife Service began to drain the lake.
"We're standing on a dock that we wrote a grant for to the Christopher Reeve Foundation. For those that can't see it, there's this dock, but it has an accessible boat launch. The idea is someone in a wheelchair can get in and out of the boat on their own. We put this in and a month later the draw down happened and now it's sitting on the beach."
Last fall the Fish and Wildlife service started to draw down the water for a study the safety of the dam and spillway at Little Grassy Lake.
"I've been around Touch of Nature for 20 years. In those 20 years... this is really low. Is there a drought? I don't know? What's going on?" Croft continued, "Justin with the refuge reached out. He said, 'We need to talk. There's a major problem here and we don't know what the solution is, but we want you to be prepared for what could be. We might have to drain the lake all the way.' At the time we were like, 'That seems worst case scenario.' I always say I'm not an engineer. If people far smarter than I are saying it's broken, then let's fix it. My work is to make sure we do fix it."
In December that option became a reality when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and US Army Corps of Engineers began to completely drain the lake.
On the Crab Orchard Refuge's website they say the spillway - which was constructed in 1942 - has aged beyond the lifespan it was designed for. The spillway needs repairs and they want to reduce the possibility of a dam failure until they can design and complete the repairs.
WSIU reached out to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service for an update. They say they are continuing the Dam Safety Modification Study with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. From there they will create a list of options for fixing the spillway. Once they develop the list, they are required to go through the National Environmental Policy Act(NEPA) process. The NEPA process will includes public comment and input. They will also analyze the environmental impacts for each alternative. Once they complete that, they will select one of the options and create a cost estimate.
While Little Grassy Lake is connected to Touch of Nature, Brian says it's not their identity. They need to let the process play out while still trying to figure out what to do next. The uncertain timeline is making that a little difficult, "I've got plans A through Z in my brain. But I'm waiting for the draw down to completely happen so we can step back and now that this is here how do we assess this?"
Even though the waiting is a challenge, Brian says he and his staff are looking at the opportunities this will provide, "Are there opportunities to make this lake even better than it was before? We were lucky enough to have 70 years with the lake. Let's do it the right way to have 70 more."
He says the optimism will help them get through this challenge. And if anyone has optimism, Brian has it. As we finishing our tour of their newly expanded beachfront, he told about some of their discoveries with the lower water, "The good news is we've found some things. We found a paddleboat. We were missing that one and all of a sudden it just popped up."
The US Fish and Wildlife Service will conduct a Existing Risk Condition Assessment March 31 - April 4th. They have scheduled a public meeting for June 2, 2025. Details will be released in early May.
