Keller Lake Alum Treatment
In 2010, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency listed Keller Lake as impaired for excess nutrients. An in-lake alum application was identified as the primary phosphorus load reduction option for controlling internal phosphorus load in Keller Lake. A recently completed in-lake management feasibility study report indicates that the in-lake alum application is the most cost-effective implementation project that remains for Keller Lake. This grant project is estimated to remove 186 pounds of phosphorus annual and will achieve most of the remaining phosphorus load reduction goal for Keller Lake.
Projects and Practices 2019
Annie Felix-Gerth
for grants to protect and restore surface water and drinking water; to keep water on the land; to protect, enhance, and restore water quality in lakes, rivers, and streams; and to protect groundwater and drinking water, including feedlot water quality and subsurface sewage treatment system projects and stream bank, stream channel, shoreline restoration, and ravine stabilization projects. The projects must use practices demonstrated to be effective, be of long-lasting public benefit, include a match, and be consistent with total maximum daily load (TMDL) implementation plans, watershed restoration and protection strategies (WRAPS), or local water management plans or their equivalents. A portion of these funds may be used to seek administrative efficiencies through shared resources by multiple local governmental units.
This project will reduce 186 lbs. of internal phosphorus load, which will be measured by improvements in total phosphorus, chlorophyll-a and Secchi disc transparency compared to 30 years of water quality monitoring data, resulting in lake delisting.
This project has resulted in applying an alum and sodium aluminate treatment to lake sediments, with the 1st dose applied in June 2019 and 2nd dose applied in September 2021. The dose of the 2nd treatment was increased upon discovery of a population of rough fish, which was previously not known, and to ensure the treatment was effective for the expected life. The project was completed under budget and resulted in a reduction of the in-lake phosphorous load by 186 pounds per year.
LOCAL LEVERAGED FUNDS