<p>Des Moines Register 11-03-06</p><p>Easter Lake cleanup cost projection: $5 million</p><p>JASON PULLIAM Register Staff Writer</p><p>State and county officials plan to work together on an $85,000-plus study to pinpoint ways to rehabilitate sediment-packed Easter Lake and its troubled watershed.</p><p>Polk County Conservation Director Pat Boddy said she will soon ask the Board of Supervisors for $37,000 to help pay for the study.</p><p>The project will be a collaboration among Polk County, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa State University and local volunteers. State money will cover the rest of the study’s cost.</p><p>In 1998, Easter Lake’s excessive siltation earned it a spot on the state’s “impaired” waters list for heavily polluted waterways.</p><p>Mike McGhee, the state’s lake projects coordinator, said the need for aggressive action to address the lake’s growing silt problems is “critical.”</p><p>The agency estimates that one-quarter to one-third of the lake is filled with sediment.</p><p>"If we keep that up, we're not going to have a functional lake in 25 to 30 years," McGhee said.</p><p>Officials hope to begin the restoration study as soon as possible. Once the project is under way, McGhee said it will take roughly one year to complete.</p><p>Costs for the full slate of restoration projects will likely exceed $5 million and take five years to complete, McGhee said. State money will make up the bulk of the funding.</p>