In July, a group of local White Bear Lake enthusiasts banded together to form the group Friends of White Bear Lake.
“We kind of describe ourselves as an interesting cast of characters,” the group’s board chairman Harry Melander says. The 11 members found each other through a shared passion and concern for the lake. Together, they bond over a singular mission: to save the lake through augmentation.
“The lake has struggled in the past 10 years or more with historically low water levels,” says board member Jim Markoe. The group proposes a solution to augment the lake with water from the St. Paul water system. “Every drop of water we put in either recharges the lake level or seeps into the aquifer below,” Markoe says. The group is optimistic about its goal to get state funding and assistance for the recharge system for White Bear Lake in 2016.
