Sweeney Lake Water Quality Improvement Project Open House Being Held Virtually On April 9

Press release from the City of Golden Valley:

April 6, 2020

The Bassett Creek Watershed Management Commission (BCWMC) is hosting a virtual open house for the Sweeney Lake Water Quality Improvement Project April 8 at 5:30. The open house can be accessed here.

Due to Sweeney Lake’s high levels of nutrients, it currently does not meet state water quality standards. It’s excess nutrients, such as phosphorus, have resulted in harmful algal blooms and poor water quality that has potential to impact aquatic life, recreation, and aesthetics. The high nutrient levels have a large impact in downstream waters including Bassett Creek and the Mississippi River.

The Sweeney Lake Water Quality Improvement Project aims to control nutrients that originate within the lake. Planned activities include:

• surveying and removing curly-leaf pondweed from the lake
• removing common carp from the lake and Schaper Pond (just south of the lake) to reduce the impact of carp stirring up sediments and releasing nutrients into the water
• performing an alum treatment with aluminum sulfate that binds to phosphorus and prevents the release of nutrients from the lake bottom

Funding for this project is proposed to come from the BCWMC’s Capital Improvement Program. Additional project funding will come from a federal grant through the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The project is expected to begin later this year.

For more information on the project and open house, visit the BCWMC website.

This press release was produced by the City of Golden Valley. The views expressed here are the author’s own.