The Friends of the Mill Creek Watershed incorporated Monday night, adopted bylaws and elected directors. The directors then chose Leif Erickson of rural Junction City as president.
Mill Creek starts at Marshfield, runs through Wood County and western Portage County, and joins the Wisconsin River below Stevens Point.
It's a stream which used to support walleyes, northern pike and smallmouth bass but whose water quality has deteriorated. The goal of the Friends organization is to make it better, and last night a report was given on results to date from a water monitoring study conducted by the Department of Natural Resources.
A lack of dissolved oxygen is seen as the creek's biggest problem, and this in turn is said to result from a high phosphorus level. Some of the phosphorus is believed to come from sewage treatment plants at Marshfield, Blenker-Sherry, Hewitt, Milladore and Junction City, and some from runoff.
A recent upgrade of the Marshfield sewage treatment plant has improved the discharge from that source. Also, Marshfield is about to create a storm water utility which probably will include retention ponds to hold back surges of water and allow the removal of contaminants. A third of Marshfield's storm water drains to Mill Creek.
A detailed land use inventory is planned which could lead to a program to reduce the runoff problem through such things as buffer strips and better runoff storage.
Besides Erickson, directors elected at Monday's meeting, held at the Junction City Village Hall, were Randy Schiferl, Jim Farrell, Mark Totten, John Jazdzewski, Mike Baltus, Roger Mancl, Ron Dickrell, Tom Jerow, Jack Kaiser, John Schultz, Fred Miller and Robert Ashbeck.
Schiferl, of Hewitt, was elected vice president, Schultz, of Junction City, secretary and Totten, of Junction City, treasurer.