Farmers aren’t the only ones hard at work in the fields these days. Crews from C.J. Moyna & Sons, of Elkader, Iowa are moving dirt to prepare a site for material dredged from the west end of Clear Lake at Ventura next spring.
The work began about one week ago to create 15-foot high berms on 208-acres of land located about two and one-half miles south and one mile west of Ventura.
David Knoll, director of the CLEAR Project which has worked on several lake restoration projects including the dredging effort, explained the site can contain the estimated 2.3 million cubic yards of sediment which will be removed from the lake. Because the material is 80 to 90 percent water, the site is being prepared to hold up to 3 million cubic yards when finished. As the sediment settles, the water will be pumped back to the Ventura Marsh, and then make its way back into the lake.
It is anticipated the site preparation work will be complete by year-end. Officials say the project is still on pace for dredging to begin in Spring 2008. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will have the project bid this winter.
“It will likely take two open water seasons to complete (the dredging project),” said Knoll. The area which will be dredged measures 215 surface acres and does not extend to the shoreline, he said. The dredging will generally occur 300-feet from the shore. The depth of the area currently ranges from four to eight-feet; after dredging, depth will be improved to a maximum depth of 26-feet,” said Knoll.
The contractor chosen for the project will create a pipeline which will be placed in the right-of-way along roads and through culverts to the containment site, and then run from the containment site to the Ventura Marsh.
Restoration work on Ventura Marsh that will allow for better water level control, reduction in carp populations, and revegetation of the marsh is also set to begin by the Spring of 2008 through a partnership between the IDNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In 2006, a large scale effort by local leaders was made to secure a total of $13 million in state, local government, and private funding to fund the dredging project. In January, it was announced the Association for the Preservation of Clear Lake had purchased land from Frank and Dorothy Clark, of Clear Lake, for $1,322,730. The Association then agreed to sell the property to the DNR for $656,000 because by law the DNR cannot pay more than assessed property value. The Association had pledged to contribute $1 million to the cause and is actively raising funds to cover the difference between the purchase price of the property and the re-sale amount to the DNR.
The Clarks said they have been watching the property transformation and consider the project “progress” for the lake.
“It’s quite a change after seeing it as crop land for 50-years,” said Dorothy Clark. “It’s all progress.”
According to Knoll, the DNR intends to maintain the land used to hold the dredged material as a wildlife area when the dredging project is complete.