LAKE COUNTY — The county will continue its effort to address nuisance weeds and algae in Clear Lake after the Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved four contracts for work this summer.
“We”re not going to ever fully manage the algae nor the aquatic weeds, nor do we want to. But we”re now on the path, I believe and I”m very optimistic and I think we”re going to be able to fine-tune it, to finally mitigate it,” District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington said Tuesday morning at the Lake County Courthouse.
In order to try to manage nuisance weeds in Clear Lake, the county will have its contractors use mechanical harvesting and herbicide treatment — a similar strategy to what was employed last summer.
“I felt that the weed abatement program that we did on the lake last year was very effective,” Water Resources Director Scott De Leon said.
The supervisors voted 3-0 to approve contracts for weed management with Aquatic Environments, Inc. and Pestmaster Services. Supervisors Denise Rushing and Jeff Smith were absent.
Pestmaster will treat areas such as Rodman Slough, Holiday Harbor, Redbud Park, Buckingham and Soda Bay for a price not to exceed $162,900.
Aquatic Environments will conduct mechanical harvesting activities in Corinthian Bay and other areas for a maximum cost of $152,125.
As for algae, the county continues to consider on a variety of tactics, according to De Leon.
“People”s expectations are that we”re going to get rid of algae and that”s not the objective, and frankly, not only is it not reasonable, we probably don”t want to remove all the algae from the lake,” De Leon said.
“I mean it”s the base of the food chain and algae has been growing in Clear Lake for hundreds of years so we”re not going to remove it. What the objective is is to try to abate the nuisance,” he added.
The supervisors approved algae-abatement contracts with Aquatic Environments, for a price not to exceed $275,000, and Armour Petroleum Service and Equipment Corporation, for a maximum cost of $25,000.
De Leon said the department has not decided where each company will work on nuisance algae but areas of focus include Soda Bay and Manakee Cove.
The weed and algae efforts will begin some time this summer. All three contractors performed work on Clear Lake last year.
Finding ongoing funding is key for future abatement activities, according to County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox. The recent efforts relied mainly on one-time monies, he added.
“It”s going to take additional funding beyond what the county has available at this point, and my point is that funding should come from and include the residents of the cities in addition to the unincorporated area,” Cox said.
The three supervisors gave consensus to direct the County Counsel”s Office to prepare a legal opinion about a possible countywide, sales-tax initiative and an analysis of a potential advisory measure for lake maintenance.
