It’s the case of the purloined pond water.
Rock County’s Parks Division plans to price out a surveying consultant who might figure out how and why a pond at Rock River Heritage Park seems to keep draining itself — no matter how much water the county tries to put in it.
Rock County’s Parks division chief John Traynor is frustrated over the situation. He says the county has repeatedly pumped Rock River water into the pond at the former Boy Scouts camp to raise its water levels several feet.
The county bought the park at 5801 N. River Road from the Boy Scouts of America for $3.4 million in 2023. The county’s parks division decided this spring to try to fill the park’s pond with more water because it had lost about 12 feet of water from its deepest parts since the park’s Boy Scouts camp days.
Whether the clay liner the Boy Scouts set in the pond’s bottom years ago has become worn through, or another force is at play, Traynor says the water level will only rise to about 4.5 feet.
Once workers shut off a pump that’s pulling water into the pond from the Rock River downhill, the pond empties out. Traynor says a natural spring that trickles downhill below the pond’s earthen levy does not appear to be the culprit. The ground beneath the pond’s man-made clay liner is glacial sand and gravel like the rest of the river bluffs the park sits on.
Traynor told the Public Works’ Parks Committee Tuesday that some visitors say they want to see the pond filled to a depth that allows fishing, kayaking and wading. Traynor would be happy just to see the pond reach 4 or 5 feet in depth and stay there.
But now, there’s only a foot or so of water in the pond — not nearly enough to support fish or other aquatic life year-round.
Traynor told the county parks committee he’d be leery to spend more money pumping water into an apparently leaky pond. The committee gave Traynor the clear to price-check a surveyor who he says might learn what is causing the Heritage Park pond’s seemingly unquenchable thirst.
Traynor says his main frustration is that the county is out costs for labor, regulatory approval and permitting to pump water into the pond. He says a pump the Public Works division bought to pull water from the Rock River into the pond can be used on various highway projects.
Depending on what a surveyor’s work could cost, or what the underlying problem might be, Traynor says it’s possible the county will not be able to afford a fix, given other plans and priorities at the 178-acre park. Heritage Park has a lodge, dozens of cabins, outbuildings, and miles of wooded trails — alongside a number of pavilions and two newly-built playgrounds.
Traynor says it’s possible visitors may have to be satisfied with a shallow wetland taking the place of a former pond where Boy Scouts once swam, fished and kayaked.
