The tidy neighborhoods around man-made Lakes 3 and 4 in Lake in the Hills still maintain a quiet, summer resort demeanor.
Towering oaks, cottonwoods and weeping willows ring the muddy water of the shallow lakes, each just an acre or two in size and home to a healthy carp population and a number of duck families.
But Lakes 3 and 4 are not as picturesque as they used to be, residents say, because deteriorating Dams 3 and 4 have let water levels drop to unattractive lows.
For years, neighbors initially drawn to the “lakefront” property have been complaining to village officials that the dams were responsible for the sinking lake levels-now about 4 feet at their deepest point.
“We call this `Dogtown’ down here,” said Donald Klasen, 69, longtime outspoken advocate of dam rehabilitation. “That’s how they treat you, like you’re in the doghouse.”
Now, frustrated residents downstream from Dam 3 may finally see some real progress toward getting the dams fixed and their lake levels raised.
The village of Lake in the Hills has filed an application with the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Water Resources to rebuild the concrete dams. And village officials have voted to accept bids for the work, expected to cost more than $100,000.
“This should have been taken care of 10 or 15 years ago,” said Village Trustee Joe Murawski, who has been fighting for new dams for about a year. “They have completely disintegrated on one side. They’re totally shot.”
The two dams that need repair are part of a man-made water system of four lakes, each essentially connected by three dams.
Dam 3 separates Lakes 3 and 4, and Dam 4 “holds” water in Lake 4.
The dams were built in the 1920s, designed to prevent water in the lakes from continuing down a creek to the Fox River.
But water now flows through the middle and around the sides of Dam 4. And a temporary Band-Aid of railroad ties and steel reinforcement bars set in the mud two years ago can barely hold back Lake 3.
Residents object to the ugly dam remnants and the now shallow water holes.
“Ducks just walk across the water now,” said Klasen, a 39-year resident on Hiawatha Drive, whose property backs up to Dam 4. He said that rushing water has snatched as much as a foot a year from his yard since the dams began giving way.
Natural debris, such as sticks and logs, and an occasional plastic water bottle also wash up on two sandbars that now jut up from the water on the downstream side of Dam 3.
“It’s an eyesore,” said Jerry Marsh, village public works superintendent. “By raising the level of the lakes more, debris will float to the sides and we can pick it up.”
Rehabilitating the two dams will mean replacing much of the structures, esentially concrete walls. The new dams, like the old ones, will be designed with notches that the village can control depending on the rain.
“If you establish a level of consistency, you’re not constantly changing the level of the water for the plants and animals that live in it,” said Paul Mauer, civil engineer with IDOT’s Water Resources Division.
Some residents have complained that during heavy rainfall, rushing water brings debris to the dams, which plugs the dams and causes flooding.
Klasen said the dams also endanger property values along the lakefront property.
“Twenty years ago, they said we’d have the most beautiful park district that you’d ever seen,” Klasen said. “All it would take is some cement rails to keep water in the pond.”
