SPRING LAKE TREATMENT NOTICE

Beginning in May and continuing throughout the summer, biologists will be conducting GPS-guided surveys of Spring Lake to identify areas requiring treatment. Based on the results of the surveys, select areas of Spring Lake will be treated. The treatments are conducted under a permit issued by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. The permit dictates herbicides that are allowed, dose rates, and specific areas of the lake where treatments are permissible.

At the time of treatment, signs will be posed along the shoreline of treated areas that list use restrictions that apply, if any. Generally, there are no fishing restrictions, a 24-hour swimming restriction, and in some situations a limited irrigation restriction. The irrigation restrictions do not apply to established lawns. The restrictions only apply to portions of the lake receiving treatment, not the entire lake.

The plant control program on Spring Lake is limited and designed to control invasive plants while preserving beneficial plants that are essential to a well-balanced fishery and a healthy lake.

The Spring Lake – Lake Board was established in 1998 under Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act. The Board is composed of a lake property owner representative, a representative of each of the five municipalities bordering the lake, county commissioners from Ottawa and Muskegon Counties, the Ottawa County Water Resources Commissioner and the Muskegon County Drain Commissioner.

In 2020, the lake board held a virtual public hearing and approved a new three-year lake improvement project for Spring Lake (2021 to 2023). The program includes aquatic plant control, plant control coordination and field evaluations, water quality monitoring, information and education, watershed management, alum treatment evaluation, and administration and contingency. Project activities are coordinated under the direction of the lake board’s environmental consultant, Progressive AE. This web site includes information about Spring Lake and ongoing lake management activities.