Arnolds Park, Iowa — Parks Marina, a staple of East Okoboji Lake in northwest Iowa, removed lake bed sediment last year near its boat forklift station without a permit — a repeat offense, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that the marina was recently fined $5,000 for the infraction but was granted an “after-the-fact permit” to approve the excavation, DNR documents show.
The forklift station itself was constructed without a permit at least nine years ago, the documents show. It is located along the lake’s shoreline where marina workers can retrieve and launch boats using a forklift. People pay the marina to store their boats in a large building where they are stacked on steel racks. It’s a quicker in-and-out process than using a typical boat ramp.
A recent agreement with the DNR — in which Parks agreed to pay the $5,000 fine — said the marina had obtained a permit in 2012 to dredge sediment near a boat ramp, a similar project to the one in 2021. The work is meant to increase the depth of the lake near the shoreline. However, that area of the lake is public property and requires state permission for modification.
DNR documents show that the marina applied for a permit in 2013 to install three new boat ramps and was subsequently denied. In the meantime, a DNR on-site review for the permit revealed the initial forklift station had been built without a permit, and that a portion of the shoreline had been extended into the lake — also without a permit — to accommodate a motorcycle parking lot.
