Photo by Deb Gau Shetek Area Lakes Association president Lars Johansson and Jim Wichmann spoke to Lyon County commissioners during their meeting Tuesday morning.

MARSHALL — When the Shetek Area Lakes Association first started organizing, the 2018 flooding that impacted roads and homes around Lake Shetek was fresh in members’ minds. But association members say flooding and erosion affect a wider area, that reaches as far north as Balaton’s Lake Yankton.

Lakes association president Lars Johansson told Lyon County commissioners that a coalition of area counties is needed to help address flooding and erosion.

“If we can work as a team, that is what we need to do,” Johansson said Tuesday. Johansson said the Shetek Area Lakes Association now has around 400 members, including people from the Balaton area. “We got people from all walks of life.”

Lake Yankton, like Lake Shetek, is part of the Des Moines River watershed, said Johansson. Over the past several years, both lakes have been facing problems including flooding and erosion due to high water levels.

“Lake Yankton needs to be taken care of,” Johansson said.

High water in the lake and heavy rains have washed away large chunks of the shore on Lake Yankton, threatening a Balaton cemetery overlooking the lake. If mudslides and erosion on the lakeshore continue, they could also threaten U.S. Highway 14, said Balaton resident Jim Wichmann.

“If we don’t do something, next year it’s going to be terrible,” Wichmann said.

Lyon County Soil and Water Conservation District administrator John Biren said about 3% of Lyon County drains into the Des Moines River watershed. In the past six or seven years, he said, the county has identified several water control structures, as well as a flood control project on Lake Yankton.

Johansson said the Shetek Area Lakes Association has been working with Murray County officials, as well as the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, to try and prevent future flood damage. He said a hydrologic study of the watershed is being planned. Once the study is complete, the group plans to try and get state funding to help with flood prevention projects.

The Shetek Area Lakes Association has some priorities for slowing down the flow of water into area lakes, Johansson said. One of those priorities was improvements to the Currie Dam, although Johansson said he learned that the dam is owned by the state. Another area of concern is raising the road connecting Keeley Island on Lake Shetek with the mainland. During the flooding in the summer of 2018, children at the Shetek Lutheran Ministries camp on Keeley Island had to be evacuated when the road was underwater.

Karen Larson, a resident of Rock Lake Township in Lyon County, said she was concerned about the amount of water that passes into the watershed from county ditches and drainage tile.

“I realize the ditch system has to be there,” she said, but slowing down the flow of water into lakes like Lake Yankton and Lake Shetek would help.

“We are not against tiling, we are not against farming,” Johansson said. But there should also be structures like dry dams built to help prevent flooding in the region.

Lyon County commissioners said they agreed with the lake association’s goals.

“We’ve gotta figure out a way to hold water back,” said Commissioner Gary Crowley. However, they said funding those projects, and finding property they could use for flood control, would likely be challenges.

“We appreciate you folks being on the same page as us,” Johansson said. “We have to cooperate and work all together.”