Normandale Lake Improvement Project
The Nine Mile Creek Watershed District’s Board of Managers ordered the Normandale Lake Water Quality Improvement Project at the June 20 board meeting. The project entails a lake drawdown, herbicide treatment, and alum treatment.
The project will go out to bid this summer, with work beginning on the lake drawdown in mid to late-August. Turtle protection fencing will be installed before the start of the drawdown. During the lake drawdown, water levels dropping in Normandale Lake will cue turtles to find new overwintering habitat before they need to hibernate for the winter. The turtle protection fencing will surround the lake and direct turtles safely upstream or downstream for the winter and keep them off roads. The District will also work with the Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District to conduct a fish survey in July and August on the lake before the start of the project. Learn more on the District’s Normandale project page or the City of Bloomington’s project page.
Watch two videos produced with the City of Bloomington to hear more about the Normandale project:
Pack your Bags, Pondweed
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A short, humorous video from the City of Bloomington. The invasive curly-leaf pondweed complains that none of the other plants like it, while visitors grumble that Normandale Lake is green and smelly. The City and the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District then explain their plan: drain the lake so the pondweed freezes over the winter, then let the creek refill it so the lake looks and smells better. “Pack your bags, pondweed, you’re out of here.”
Water Quality Project to Clean up Normandale Lake
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A City of Bloomington news video about the 2018 project to improve water quality in Normandale Lake.
Normandale Lake averages only about three feet deep, so plants grow throughout it, and visitors often complain about algae and odor. The invasive curly-leaf pondweed crowds out other plants. To fight it, the City and the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District planned to draw the lake down in the fall so the pondweed would freeze over the winter, let spring snowmelt refill the lake, and then treat the remaining pondweed with herbicide.
The video also covers effects on visitors and wildlife: at least one lane of the trail would stay open, the drawdown would start in mid-August so turtles had time to leave, fencing would steer turtles away from roads, and fish would survive in the channel of Nine Mile Creek that remains. The goals are less phosphorus and less curly-leaf pondweed, which should mean less algae and odor. Viewers are encouraged to help by adopting a storm drain at adopt-a-drain.org.