House lawmakers are coming to see Fountain Lake

Published 9:51 am Friday, October 21, 2011

The House bonding committee will be in Albert Lea Monday afternoon to meet with community leaders about a $7.5 million bonding request for cleaning up Fountain Lake.

The bonding money would go toward studies, permits, land acquisition, construction and sediment removal on the lake.

Because of increased sediment over the years, the water quality of the lake has become impaired and there are large algae blooms nearly every year.

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This is the third request for bonding money for this project.

Andy Henschel, watershed technician with the Shell Rock River Watershed District, said the request would cover about half of the total estimated project cost of $15 million. The remaining funds would come through local dollars and other state and federal grants.

“It’s very important to what we’re doing in the overall goal of cleaning up the water quality and increasing the recreational value of Fountain Lake,” Henschel said. “It will also have a trickle-down effect on Albert Lea Lake and the Shell Rock River.”

The request comes at a time of several other local water quality improvement projects completed by the Watershed District, the city of Albert Lea, Freeborn County and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some of the other projects implemented include rock inlets, shoreline restoration, rough fish barriers and rain gardens, among others. During the last two years, there has also been a focus on restoring Pickerel Lake, which feeds into Fountain Lake.

“Years of previous restoration efforts have prepared the community for this restoration effort,” the release states.

The project would be the next step in restoring water quality in the community.

It would not only improve water quality but would also improve fish and wildlife habitat and enhance the lake’s recreation value to the community.

The Fountain Lake project is one of several the House Capital Investment Committee is traveling around the state to view.

The Capital Investment Committee tours the state every two years to see requests; traditionally, most bonding allocations are made during the even year of a legislative biennium.

Bills are already pending for the request in the House and Senate, created by District 27A Rep. Rich Murray and District 27 Sen. Dan Sparks.

The committee is slated to meet at 1:45 p.m. at the new Edgewater Park Pavilion to hear a presentation about the project.

“We’re trying to paint a picture of what we’ve done to increase the water quality coming into the lakes and why we feel this is the next important step,” Henschel said.

The dredging project would not be the first for Fountain Lake in its history.

Between 1940 and 1942, the city of Albert Lea dredged about 1.8 million cubic yards of sediment from the main bay of the lake to improve recreation, and beginning in 1962, Dane’s Bay and Edgewater Bay were dredged.