Bass, Bluegill, and Bullheads. Crappie. Pike and Pumpkinseeds.
Thousands of fish remain suspended in the lake’s lingering ice, or flopped atop, while thousands more steep in a stew of thickening green algae. Many have already sunk to the lake bed.
Whatever the case, the fish of Waumegah Lake are dead.
‘From the pictures I’ve seen, it looks like a complete winterkill,? said Gary Towns, Supervisor of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources? Lake Erie Watershed Management Unit.?
Translation: it’s likely every fish in the once-teeming fisherman’s paradise is dead.
But why? In Springfield Township, residents who live near the lake subscribe to one of two schools of thought.
A representative of the first group, John Bistoff, brought the issue to The Clarkston News and contends Waumegah Lake has suffered greatly from various factors in recent years.
A court-ordered raising of the water level, installation of an augmentation well, and aquatic weed treatments’which, he says, involve too many chemicals and not enough mechanical harvesting’reflect mismanagement by the Waumegah Lake Improvement Board.
Beaches’and worse, wetlands’have been swallowed by the lake; trees are growing in the water; the lake is overrun by weeds that cause problems if left unchecked, and cause potentially bigger problems if treated improperly.
And now the culmination: a massive fish kill, first discovered by Bistoff’s 6-year-old son, Connor, about two weeks ago.
But a representative of the second group, Springfield Township Supervisor Mike Trout, whole-heartedly disagrees with Bistoff.
In fact, when sought for comment on the fish kill, Trout told The Clarkston News, ‘Don’t make an issue of this.?
‘I’ve never experienced a fish kill to any significant level, but I’ve seen dead fish in the springtime there’s no question it’s a fairly normal occurrence,? said Trout, who began his term as township supervisor in November, lives on Waumegah Lake and serves as the township representative, as well as secretary and treasurer, to the Waumegah Lake Improvement Board. ‘It just depends, I think, on so many factors.?
Trout said he was continuing a long-standing consulting relationship with with G. Douglas Pullman, Ph.D. of the Flint-based Aquest Corporation, and would also begin consulting with Gary Crawford, a Senior Environmental Professional with Superior Environmental and Aquatic Services, a company Crawford owns and operates.
‘We’re going to take a very close look at Waumegah,? said Trout, who was appointed to the WLIB in February 2005 to replace long-time township representative Lou Kirby.
‘We’ve had Dr. Pullman and Aquaweed monitoring the lake, and I’m not so sure anything we’re doing to address the nuisance plants is really affecting anything in the lake in a negative manner.?
Furthermore, Trout said, Bistoff has been ‘crying about the same bull**** for the last 10 years.?
‘It irritates the crap out of me that the same issues keep being raised by one person,? Trout said. ‘His whole thing is a one man show, with constant complaints of ‘you’re damaging the environment, you’re poisoning the lake, you’re killing everything.? His beach is gone? So build a new one.?
Many beaches around the lake, Trout pointed out, were ‘lower than they are now.?
‘At one point (Bistoff) wanted $5,000 from the lake association to build a new beach,? Trout said. ‘He tried to extort them. After they said ‘no? he started this smear campaign because he’s unhappy, it’s aggravating.?
That, said Trout, is likely the reason Bistoff is pointing to man-made causes for the fish kill instead of accepting it as a natural event.
If others have complaints, Trout said, he hasn’t heard them.
?(Bistoff) is the only one on the lake’well, he has a neighbor’that’s been complaining,? he said. ‘Everyone else is happy; very happy.?
But some residents of Waumegah Drive would disagree.
Tom Warstler isn’t happy, and said the legal lake level’established at 1,049.9 feet (above sea level) in 1997 by order of Oakland County Circuit Judge Rudy Nichols’is not the historic level, as some argue.
How does he know?
‘I’ve lived here since 1954,? Warstler said. ‘It was never this high until they turned on that well; I’ve never seen anything like this mess.?
Like Bistoff and a number of other neighbors, Warstler’s beach is gone, too, swallowed by Waumegah Lake when the much-disputed augmentation well began operating in 2006.
?(Mike Trout) is right, we did ask for $5,000 about 12 years ago when we first heard they were going to raise the level of the lake,? Bistoff said. ‘We knew what would happen, so we had someone come out and give us an estimate of how much it would cost to replace the beach.?
But, he said, the $5,000 included costs for repairing his beach and that of four other neighbors who were equally concerned.
But the lake wasn’t able to rise to the 1,049.9 feet without the help of a new augmentation well, and it wasn’t until 2006 that neighbors on Waumegah Drive watched their beaches disappear.
Randy Dombrowski isn’t happy, either.
‘I don’t live on a lake anymore,? said Dombrowski, who grew up on Waumegah Lake and recently returned. ‘I might as well have a swamp in my yard.?
Looking at the melting lake and rotting fish from his yard on a warm day last week, Dombrowski said he won’t be letting his grandchildren play in the water when they come to visit this summer. He wonders if the lake will ever recover’or if it will recover before he’s ‘too old to enjoy it.?
‘They tried to make this lake into something it isn’t,? he said, gesturing south toward the Autumn Shores subdivision. ‘Now it’s full of dead fish. It’s nothing. It’s depressing.?
To add insult to injury, he said, those who were adamantly opposed to raising the lake level in the first place were smacked some $1,300 in special assessments to pay for the well, to cover legal fees incurred when the lake board fought the DEQ’s decision to prohibit the well, and to control weeds in the lake.
‘A lot of us are on a fixed income,? Dombrowski said. ‘How can I sell my house when I have more special assessment than regular taxes? Its frustrating.?
Others are unhappy, too. Come back next week as we continue to look at the issues facing Waumegah Lake.

What’s a fish kill?
A ‘fish kill’ is the sudden death of a large number of fish, and can also include other aquatic animals who die over a short period of time, often within a defined area.
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), a fish kill can occur at various times in the year, and for various reasons.
In a winterkill, the fish suffocate from lack of dissolved oxygen.
‘When you have a lake that’s rich in leaf litter and dead plants, and we have an early and extensive snow cover, the sunlight can’t get through to cause photosynthesis with the plants alive below the ice,? said Gary Towns, Supervisor of the DNR’s Lake Erie Watershed Management Unit. ‘That process is what gives oxygen to the water.?
Furthermore, he explained, while generation of new oxygen is halted, existing oxygen is consumed by degradation of dead material on the lake bottom as bacteria and microorganisms break down that material and feed on it.
Shallow lakes, Towns explained, especially those abundant with organic matter’like Waumegah’can be prone to winterkill.
Most of the time, fish kills are due to natural causes beyond human control, such as weather.
This, contends Springfield Township Supervisor Mike Trout, is what happened on Waumegah Lake.
But, occasionally, the fish kill is directly related to pollution or improper use of herbicides or other chemicals.
This, contends riparian resident John Bistoff, is what happened on Waumegah Lake.
And while Trout refused to discuss the issue at any depth, Bistoff offered solid data and physical evidence, which he believes will support his argument.
We’ll take a look at that evidence, and talk to several experts, next week in The Clarkston News.