Extensive Work Proposed For UConn's Mirror Lake

STORRS, CT — UConn's Mirror Lake could soon get an overdue polishing.

University of Connecticut officials are reviewing ways to improve Mirror Lake by addressing critical flood-prevention issues, long-overdue dredging, stormwater management, and the water quality and aesthetics of what was termed Wednesday as a "highly visible campus attraction."

The work is being proposed after a new drainage master plan and feasibility study determined an "immediate need" to create more capacity in the now-shallow lake to handle stormwater runoff, officials said.

The lake’s 75-year-old dam would also need to be replaced and its spillway I sin need of repairs, officials said. "Dangerous conditions" could result if flood-control measures fail during extreme rains, they added.

The UConn Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to allow the design work to begin to get a sense of what would be involved in terms of the work itself and the potential costs for various options.

Mirror Lake is visibly shallow, murky and "excessively weedy" during periods of the year and contains several feet of "organic muck and sediment," officials said. The culprit is stormwater from UConn's South Campus watershed and flows from non-UConn property toward the lower-lying lake, officials said.

Miror Lake has not been dredged since the existing dam was last replaced in 1946, despite significant growth and development in the watershed that has added to the stormwater runoff, officials said.

Assessments were conducted about seven years ago and determined Mirror Lake’s deepest areas were only about 3.5 feet, suggesting a loss of more than 6 feet of depth from stormwater runoff since the 1946 dredging.