Meeting tries to clear the waters.

Byline: From The Register-Guard and news service reports

A government task force working on fixing Diamond Lake's water quality and fishery problems will hold a public meeting in Roseburg next week to take comments on several alternatives under consideration.

The meeting of the Diamond Lake Working Group is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Roseburg City Council Chambers, 900 S.E. Douglas Ave.

Diamond Lake is plagued with tui chub, algae blooms, poor water quality, and a declining recreational fishery. The working group formed last summer to begin addressing these issues, and the Umpqua National Forest is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to analyze treatment options for the lake.

"We now have several alternatives drafted, and we'd like to hear back from the public, whether they think we've achieved a full range of alternatives. New ideas are always welcome," said Sherri Chambers, the working group's team leader. She plans to release a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in February 2004 for wide public review.

"In the past, we typically waited until the Draft EIS was released to ask for additional public input on a project," Chambers said. "However, we believe that getting comments now while alternatives are still being drafted provides us with a better opportunity to incorporate public suggestions into the project in a timely manner."

Current draft alternatives include:

"No action," the inclusion of which is required under environmental laws, would leave Diamond Lake in the same condition as it is now.

Proposed action, which has several components, including lowering the lake by eight feet, mechanical fish and fish carcass removal, a rotenone treatment, monitoring and a fish restocking strategy. The objective of this alternative is to have a complete fish kill as a first step in improving water quality and the recreational fishery.

Put-and-take fishery - designed to provide an improved recreational fishery that has minimal potential impacts on water quality. This alternative is identical to the proposed action except that it would use a different fish stocking strategy to restock the lake following rotenone treatment. This alternative also would require Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission approval of a revised stocking strategy at Diamond Lake.

Antimycin A treatment alternative - designed to reduce the effects of a chemical treatment on "non-target" species, such as frogs, in and around Diamond Lake while maintaining the goal of a complete fish kill. The alternative includes many aspects of the proposed action including lake drawdown, fish and fish carcass removal, and monitoring.

Mechanical/Biological alternative - responds to the issues of fish stocking, non-target species, water quality and wetland ecology. There would be no eradication of tui chub; the population would be limited or controlled using mechanical removal techniques in combination with predacious fish stocking. The alternative would require annual mechanical harvest of tui chub for six consecutive years. Again, ODFW would seek approval from the public and the Commission to change fish stocking strategies.

Two additional alternatives that are being investigated further include draining the lake and detonating explosives in the lake.

"We're still looking at data and studying these two alternatives. If they aren't feasible, they will not be included in the final Draft EIS," Chambers said.

Initial implementation of the selected alternative could begin in the fall of 2004 and span several years.