Another season of Fountain Lake dredging kicks off

The fourth year of the Fountain Lake dredging program is underway.

“The dredge was moved into the Main Bay this afternoon and marine equipment is being rearranged on Fountain Lake. It’s time to kick off another season of dredging,” the Shell Rock River Watershed District said in their latest announcement.

The contractor J.F. Brennan will remove about 380,000 cubic yards of sediment this year. This work is expected to be wrapped up by mid- to late August. 

For years, Fountain Lake has been hampered by large amounts of sediment from land use upstream and stream bank erosion.

The Shell Rock River Watershed District and partners have been aggressively addressing this issue with systematic, multi-faceted efforts.

The restoration project is a multi-phased project.

Active dredging began in 2018, utilizing a previous bonding appropriation of $7.5 million and local option sales tax funds of $9.5 million.