Minnesota's low water levels creating quandary for boaters
MINNEAPOLIS — As Minnesota's drought worsens, rivers and lakes continue to struggle.
The Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul is so low it's registering its fourth-lowest measurement ever.
There's an unfortunate and somewhat familiar site over the past couple of summers in south Minneapolis. Minnehaha Creek is dry enough to become a walkable rock bed in some areas.
Many bodies of water across the Twin Cities look similar, which is surprising when you consider the wet spring filled with flooding concerns.
"Normally you can hear it as you're approaching," said Jan Bailey as she walked by Minnehaha Falls.
Back in April, there was water aggressively rushing over the falls following the spring melt. Months later, just silence and a trickle greets visitors. The water is so still below that you can clearly see fish mirroring its stagnant flow.
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"It's just quite sad to see it like this. And you hear about global warming and climate change and the drought, but when I see this, it's right there," she said.
Drought was no longer a concern this spring when flooding turned Harriet Island Park into a pond in St. Paul. Now the nearby Mississippi River is approaching record lows. Boaters can still enjoy it, but not all bodies of water have held up well.
Blaize Harty owns Plymouth Dock and Lift on Medicine Lake. His business has been busy over the past few weeks.
"We're having people reach out to us to pull their lifts out further, and then either that or people are getting dock extensions," Harty said.
Meanwhile, he said some people have already pulled their boats for the season on the east side of the lake where it has become shallow at a faster pace. Enjoying a few more weeks on the water or calling it a quits before the calendar officially turns to fall is a decision other owners will need to make soon.
"If people wait too long and we don't get any more rain, then it's gonna be a really big challenge to get people's boats off the water," Harty said. "But you also don't want to cut summer short."
