Huntingburg receives grant for lake improvement planning

On Monday the City of Huntingburg learned they had been awarded a $24,375 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grant money will assit in paying for a preliminary engineering report and environmental report for the dredging project at Huntingburg City Lake.

The grant will help pay the costs associated with developing an application for the project. The project application includes dredging estimates, disposal site selection, and sediment sampling and testing.

City Utilities Superintendent Tony Traylor explained a shallow pond separated from the main lake by County Road 630 South will be the first area to be dredged. The pond acts as a pre-sedimentation basin that stops a lot of the organics from coming into the main body of the lake. “It hasn’t been dredged for about twenty years,” Traylor explained. “We’ve had some issues with manganese from the vegetation that is washed into it.”

The manganese is difficult to remove through the water treatment plant. “We add one chemical to process the manganese, potassium chromagnate. We just have a hard time processing it.” Traylor said.

The material that will be removed from the lake will be spread over at least 15 acres and will take up to a year to dry. “We are looking at outright purchasing the land or leasing it from the landowner for a year.” Traylor said.”If the land is next to the city lake then we may look at purchasing, but at this point we are looking at both options.”

The grant will be used for a dredging plan to include the entire lake but the main area of consideration for dredging will be this south approximately five acre pre-sedimentation basin.

The City Council awarded Commonwealth Engineers a contract to proceed with the preliminary engineering in September of 2011 and with this grant the city’s cost for this phase will only be $8,125, a considerable savings for the Utility Department.

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