Posted on May 28, 2025
A study done for the City of Bloomington estimated dredging Lake Bloomington could cost $35 million.
Updated survey results from a late 1990s study of the bottom of the lake led experts to recommend that it should be dredged to remove sedimentation and silt.
The lake was constructed in 1929 and has never been dredged.
City Water Director Ed Andrews said Lake Bloomington has since lost volume, something dredging could help regain.
“We have seen in Lake Bloomington about a 10% reduction in volume, and that’s since it was originally created,” Andrews said. “Siltation has reduced the volume capacity of the lake.”
Andrews said the dredging process could also improve water quality. He said an additional study is being performed on the silt in the lake to see if it contributed to the city’s poor water quality this winter.
“We are doing an additional study for sediment oxygen demand of that deposition of materials to see if that is an additional cause of the recent algae bloom event,” Andrews said.
He said the $35 million would only cover the dredging process, not the acquisition of land to use for drying out the material removed from the lake.
Andrews said the project is in the initial phases of planning and would not begin for another 10 years or more.
Lake Evergreen was also surveyed, but it does not need dredging.
