A popular lake in northeast Iowa’s Black Hawk County is reopening this summer after a two-year, $3 million restoration effort through a state program.
Park Ranger Al Finke says Casey Lake in Hickory Hills Park was once choked by algae.
“This time, five years ago, there would have been 20 feet of vegetation out in the water, and it was nearly unfishable from the shore,” Finke says.
Casey Lake is among several dozen projects in the state’s Lake Restoration Program, which was launched in 2006 by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
During the project, the lake was drained, then scraped clean, and ponds were added upstream to capture fertilizer runoff which powers algae growth.
Michelle Balmer manages the DNR program and says it wasn’t too long ago that Casey Lake had thick algae blooms and murky water.
Balmer says, “And really trying to control the sediment coming into lakes and the nutrients coming into the lakes is the first step towards restoration, and what we’re trying to achieve is reduce some of those inputs.”
The lake was restocked with bluegill, channel catfish and largemouth bass. During its 20-year history, the DNR lake restoration program has worked on more than 70 lakes in 55 Iowa counties.
(By Gavin McGough, Iowa Public Radio)