Surveyors at work on Crailsheim Road pond project

WORTHINGTON — Surveyors visited the site on Crailsheim Road where the Okabena-Ocheda Watershed District pond will be located, in preparation for designing the project.

Because the Fox Farm Road bridge was replaced since the preliminary design was made, the surveyors also gathered information about the bridge. Additionally, they surveyed land owned by four homeowners in the area whose homes are the lowest, where flooding could potentially occur if the planned dam fails.

“They’re doing some surveying on those sites for dam safety purposes,” said Watershed Administrator Dan Livdahl during Tuesday’s meeting of the Okabena-Ocheda Watershed District Board of Managers. “I did contact all those homeowners by letter last week to let them know that someone would be on site.”

In two weeks, the watershed will have a legal description of the property, which will be brought to an attorney for the creation of an easement. Once signed, the easement will allow the watershed to create and maintain a pond on District 518 property near the Intermediate School.

“(Superintendent) John Landgaard would like to have a draft of the easement in front of the school board in July,” Livdahl said.

The pond could prevent about 300 pounds of phosphorus and 120 tons of sediment from reaching Lake Okabena every year. Phosphorus feeds algae growth, impacting water quality and providing fuel for algae blooms.

With the school's plans to build ball fields in the area in the future, the fill from digging out the pond can be used to create flat surfaces rather than needing to be removed from the site, saving money for both the school and the watershed district.

In other news Tuesday, the board:

• Discussed the winter fish kill on Lake Ocheda, which was significant, and eliminated some carp from the lake, improving water quality. However, water quality has also been negatively affected by the strong winds that have been blowing recently.
• Talked about the need to test algae blooms in a more systematic way than was done last year. A proposal for testing will likely be presented at the next meeting of the board.
• Appointed Carol Olson, Tyler Wadzinski and Erik Fritz to its advisory committee.