ABOVE: A pile of Curly Leaf Pondweed on a dock in Fairmont, waiting to be collected by Water’s Edge, which the city has partnered with for the service. The new Lakes Management Committee talked about CLP, among other issues, during a meeting on Monday.

FAIRMONT– The first official lakes management committee meeting was held on Monday morning at Fairmont City Hall. The group first met last month to talk about a variety of matters pertaining to the lakes and once again the bulk of the conversation on Monday centered on Curly Leaf Pondweed (CLP) management.

CLP, an aquatic invasive species, has actually had a presence in the Fairmont lakes since at least 1993 but it’s become more noticeable in recent years due to a variety of factors.

Of the committee, which includes representatives of the city, Martin Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and Fairmont Lakes Foundation, Inc. (FLF), Pat Oman, Community Development Director, said, “It’s been something the city council has been wanting to see for some time and city staff is supportive of it as well.”

First, Ryan Wesal, an aquatic plant specialist with Minnesota State University-Mankato, gave a report of the 2025 Fairmont Lakes Curly Leaf Pondweed Delineation Summary. The delineation survey was done on all five lakes back in May.

“I think we figured there were about 370 acres of Curly Leaf among the Fairmont lakes,” Wersal said.

Recently, he said a crew of his did turion sampling in the local lakes to get a baseline of what the propagule bank really is.

Turions are a type of bud capable of growing into a complete plant. The turions on CLP fall off and sink to the bottom of the lake, where it embeds and continues to grow again.

“It was kind of neat to see that there’s this range of turion density across all five basins. I think they ranged anywhere from 50 to 320 turions per square meter,” Wersal said.

He said this process was done to get an understanding of where the lakes sit relative to what’s out there. What he found is that there’s not a lot of CLP that’s surviving in sediment or surviving through the water column.

His crew will return in the next few weeks to sample the same five basins to get an idea of whether the turion bank is stable. He noted that CLP should be dying off in the next two weeks and that the turions that were made will fall to the bottom so that they can determine what the next production will be.

Hannah Neusch, Water Resources Coordinator for the city, asked if more intense management is needed in areas where there is higher turion density.

Wersal said it’s good to get CLP out early and often as the main goal is to prevent turion formation. He noted that the DNR in the upper midwest approaches CLP management with that in mind.

“To get out early May when the water is cool and the native species aren’t growing and attack Curly Leaf before it starts producing turions. In Minnesota that’s before the water temperature is 60 degrees Fahrenheit,” Wersal said.

He added that that is when when doing herbicide application. When harvesting, he said that it will want to be done continuously to keep the biomass down and from turions producing.

“There is a pretty strong relationship with density and propagule production, in this case turions, and that usually equates to management efforts and management intensity,” Wersal said.

However, when accurately managing, Wersal said in about three years they should start to see reduction in turion numbers.

He said that an offshore plot on Bass Lake in Faribault County has been treated for four years with flumioxazin and that the turion number has gone way down after the three year mark.

“What’s in the sediment is slowly dying off from attrition and we’re limiting new recruitment by managing early in the year,” Wersal said.

Neusch highlighted that CLP management is generally a slow process but that Wersal included in his report some key areas where the city should start and focus its efforts on.

A few questions were asked about mechanical harvesting of CLP. Wersal pointed out that harvesting is visible and that the city has allocated funds– from an increase to the restoration charge on utility bills– to a Lake Restoration Fund.

“Over three to four years, what do you do with it? We have two harvesters and if they’re in areas that the public utilizes and are visible… ‘we’re out here, we’re doing something,'” Wersal said.

He said that harvesting is also viewed more favorably as opposed to a chemical application to treat CLP.

Wersal stressed that the city or the Lakes Management Committee will need to decide what methods it wants to focus on and how it’s going to use it.

“Harvesting is going to be slow and expensive so we’re going to have to be strategic about where we put the harvesters,” he said.

Oman said that when the city acts is important as well, especially if the goal is to prevent turions from breaking off and sinking to the bottom of the lake. He acknowledged that the city had a rather late start with its plan this year.

On June 16, the city of Fairmont began offering to residents an opportunity for them to gather CLP at their properties and then have a permitted contractor go around to collect and correctly dispose of it.

Wersal said harvesting should be done early, but that CLP also needs time to grow so that there’s something to cut.

“Harvesting is going to be a repeat cutting throughout the year, depending on what’s permittable,” he said.

However, Jon Omvig of FLF said that he thought hand harvesting with a rake, especially in May and June, does “basically nothing.”

“Then mid-July it’s basically gone. So are we saying that from a harvesting standpoint, you’ve got a window of mid to late June to mid July that you can functionally use a harvester?” Omvig asked.

Wersal agreed that there is a very small window from any management strategy to prevent turion formation.

Neusch jumped in and said that having multiple management efforts is key. She said for next year the city is looking at mechanical harvesting due to time constraints, but that going forward chemical herbicide treatment could be an option.

Council Member Britney Kawecki asked why there is a time constraint for next year. Neusch explained that they would need permits from the Department of Health, Pollution Control Agency and DNR.

“It sounds to me like we’re not making much progress then next year. We’re going to be doing very little harvesting and we’re not applying for the permits for the herbicides, but we’re already going to be collecting money this year and we’re going to be collecting money next year so from a standpoint of hearing from the citizens about this problem, they’re expecting something,” Kawecki said.

She said she would like to see the city apply for permits and said that she didn’t think a few people should be making decisions when there’s a whole committee.

Neusch said that the suggestion came from a discussion between herself, Wersal and Dustin Benes with SWCD based on the report.

Oman interjected and said, “we’re moving as fast as we can on the permitting timeline that we have. It started with bagging things up and picking things up and we’re talking about continuing to do that and harvesting and other technologies that we would be reviewing as a committee.”

Wersal said that the goal was to get something done yet this year since the timeline was pushed into May. He said by the time he, Neusch and Benes met with the DNR, there was no opportunity to get a chemical permit for this season, so they opted to go with harvesting as the tool.

“If we were going to do anything this year, it had to be that because we missed the window for the chemical treatment,” Wersal explained.

Kawecki said that made sense but for 2026 she wanted to see them “use all of the tools in the toolbox,” which includes harvesting and chemical treatments.

Oman shared that the committee will be meeting regularly and that every technology will be on the table.

“We are starting from doing nothing to now doing something and now to increase that,” Oman said.

Next, Neusch spent some time going over the CLP management timeline, which includes timeframes for the permitting process.

“Permits are basically only good until June 30. We have until June 30, 2026 to use our mechanical harvesting permit,” Neusch said.

Because of this, the city switched gears and contracted with Garrett Myren of Water’s Edge to pick up and properly dispose of CLP.

It started with a curbside pickup and this last weekend the city added dock pickup as well.

“People can leave it on their docks and Garrett will come by and pick it up on a pontoon and then offload it on his site,” she said.

Neusch pointed out that it is illegal to transport Curly Leaf Pondweed without a permit.

“It was a very easy yes on our end because he had a permit and everything in line,”she said.

As shared during Monday morning’s meeting, 6,000 lbs of CLP have been collected this was in the last two weekends, which Neusch said is an “astronomical” amount, though she noted they all know there’s more out there.

“So far I feel like this has been really successful and very well-received,” Neusch said.

Also during the meeting, Connie Fortin, a low salt strategist with Bolton & Menk, spoke about salt, or chloride pollutant, as she thought it was something that should be considered the the lake protection plan.

“Salt is a permanent pollutant. When you use it as a de-icer on your sidewalk, on your French fries, when you put it in your water softener and when you put it in your fertilizer, it all ends up in our water and it never goes away. It’s a forever pollutant,” Fortin said.

She said the threshold they must stay under is very small. She said one teaspoon of salt dilutes five gallons of water forever.

“The thresholds we need to keep it under to protect aquatic life is 230 milligrams per liter and for drinking water it’s 250 milligrams,” Fortin said.

When thinking about all of the water in the lakes, along with how much salt is used in the community, Fortin said people can better understand what might be happening.

She said that chloride monitoring is done in the deepest part of the lake. Oman asked how often the chloride in the chain of lakes is tested for and Benes said it’s tested monthly in the summer months.

Neusch pointed out that Fairmont’s lakes are not currently on the impaired waters list for chloride.

Fortin shared that in 2021 the state of Minnesota issued a state-wide chloride management plan. She said Minnesota is the first state in the country to have a state-wide plan.

“Every person in Minnesota must use less salt,” she said.

Fortin said that while there are plenty of strategies, she thinks public education is crucial.

“I do think if you have a newsletter or on your website, you should talk about how to try to protect your freshwater. Salt shouldn’t be a threat since it’s on our tables, but it’s a huge threat. We need to change our thinking surrounding it,” Fortin said.

In closing, Neusch gave a brief update on PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance) also known as the forever chemical, which was detected in Walleye in George Lake in mid April.

“Essentially as you all know, the Walleye in George Lake have been deemed, ‘do not eat,'” Neusch said.

She said the public notice was understandable, but called it unfortunate. She said the city has been in touch with a few people from the DNR, Pollution Control Agency and Department of Health.

“The walleye that were tested were significantly over the limit,” Neusch said.

Oman said that in a meeting the city has tried to ask where the source is, especially considering the high amount detected locally, but that it has not received much information yet.

Oman also briefly touched on the nanobubble technology and referenced a recent FLF meeting where local inventor Mark Gaalswyk spoke about a nanobubble technology he has invented.

Omvig said he’s been in touch with someone from the DNR who is the head of a newly formed nanobubble task force. Omvig said he’s received word from her that they are proceeding with caution but that the agency sees potential in the technology.