The topic of woody debris in Lake Chelan came up before the Chelan County Commission on Monday. County Commissioner Tiffany Gering told commissioners that she's discussed it with the Chelan County PUD, and said, quoting Gering, “Chelan PUD was basically, no, it's not us.” Gering said during an interview on KOZI several weeks ago that the PUD had started setting aside money to remove debris from the lake in 2005, and that fund had grown to 150-thousand dollars. She also told us that there's a machine in Stehekin that handles removal of woody debris, which brings up several questions:
Gering told commissioners Monday that the PUD doesn't know who owns the machine, but thought the Forest Service might own it. She added that the debris was coming from three sources: private owners, The National Parks Service, as the North Cascades National Park includes the upper part of Lake Chelan, and the U.S. Forest Service, as another portion of the lake is part of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.
One more stumbling block is the State Department of Fish and Wildlife, which requires a permit for any removal of large debris from the lake.