Posted on April 27, 2021
ALBERT LEA, Minnesota – It’s a project aimed to address water quality issues affecting Fountain Lake and its three bays: Bancroft, Dane’s and Edgewater.
Phase two of the multi-phase dredging project has officially kicked off, with dredgers cleaning out sediment and heavy phosphoric silt from the lake bed and pumped to an off-site confined disposal facility north of town. The phase includes the west basin of Main Bay, and about 380 cubic yards of sediment is slated to be removed.
Site manager Ryan Sands with La Crosse-based J.F. Brennan has been a part of the project since the beginning, and has heard from residents who are adamant about protecting their beloved lake.
“Hopefully it’s beneficial to help people, recreate more, have better opportunities for fishing.”
The current phase is slated to wrap up around mid-late August/early September. The next and final phase, which includes dredging the east basin of Main Bay, Bancroft Bay and Creek, is dependant on additional funding. State Representative Peggy Bennett and State Senator Gene Dornink have sponsored bills that would provide $7.5 million as part of the House’s 2021 bonding bill. However, that funding was not included in the bill. The Senate has yet to release a bonding bill.
