Swan Lake Water Levels 

Nathan Pederson, Vice President, reported in October of 2022 on the investigation he had done and the visit he and the Board had with the DNR’s Hydrologist at Charter Dam. Nathan shared a document showing historic lake levels with accompanying history (see chart below . 

 

Nathan shared some history he had learned of: 
1949 – Red water discovered in Swan Lake

1953 – Red Sludge discovered in Swan Lake and in O’Brien Reservoir

1965 – Charter Dam built for Butler Taconite 

1984 – Some harmful chemical levels discovered in the lake

1985 – The dam was dropped by 4/10 ft by petition of Swan Lake residents

2005 – Reconstruction of Charter Dam by Blandin, the dam’s confirmed owner

 

There was a discussion about what future mining might do to Swan Lake and the DNR has only authorized water appropriation permits in 2008 to dewater the pits at the old Butler Taconite site which has been occurring since then.  Dewatering only replaces the natural flow from the watershed.  There is no concern for an increase in Swan Lake as it is only putting water into Oxhide and Snowball creeks.  After dewatering, Oxhide and Snowball creeks will need to be augmented forever, even if that includes drilling for water, so we are not cut off from the flow. There have been no water appropriation permits issued to take water from Swan Lake and none have been proposed. 

 

On October 13th, 2022  members of the Swan Lake Association Board met with the DNR’s Erika Herr and Jimmy Van Asch.  Erika reviewed a lot of information with us.  There is a monitoring device that monitors lake levels which helped produce the data on the chart above. 

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There are no current plans or requests to alter Charter Dam and the chances that that will happen are pretty slim and would likely require legislative action. 
 

Charter Dam is on Swan River and is the outflow to Swan Lake.  You cannot navigate to it by boat, but if you can drive there by heading south on Highway 65, turning “right” on County Road 12 and then go down to the Charter Dam Road to see the dam. The road can be muddy.

 

If you have questions, you can always reach out to Erika, the DNR’s Mining Hydrologist at 218-231-8471 or Erika.Herr@state.mn.us.