LINCOLN, Neb. — It appears it’s back to the drawing board for an ambitious proposal to dig a huge recreational lake between Omaha and Lincoln to rival Iowa’s Lake Okoboji. That’s after a report, released Thursday, eliminated from consideration the initial location envisioned by state lawmakers — between Ashland and Gretna on the east side of the Platte River.
The report indicated that a lake there would threaten the water quality of the wellfields that provide drinking water to the City of Lincoln and “not be a viable lake location.” The conclusions prompted those advising the feasibility study – which included the water utilities for both Lincoln and Omaha – to instead consider two smaller sandpit lakes upstream and downstream of Louisville, and to explore creating two recreation lakes by damming up the Elkhorn River near Nickerson and the Salt Creek west of Ashland. State lawmakers, in an effort to make a “big swing” to attract tourists, workforce and development, had envisioned a 3,600-acre sandpit lake along Interstate 80.
To avoid controversy over past proposals to dam the Platte River in the Ashland area, they sought a sandpit lake – one created by mining out sand — in the floodplain near Linoma Beach, which is now primarily farmland. Last week’s study indicated that either the two sandpits near Louisville, or the two reservoirs on the Elkhorn and Salt, would provide about the same amount of water recreation. But that report, and one explorin.
