ABOVE: Premier Lake Harvesting LLC’s harvester, seen on the north end of Budd Lake in Fairmont on Monday afternoon. The harvester has been making its way through Fairmont’s lakes for phase one of the Curly Leaf Pondweed (CLP) removal project. The city council heard an update on the project during its meeting on Monday. Photo by Daniel Olson

FAIRMONT– On Monday the Fairmont City Council heard a progress report from Premier Lake Harvesting, LLC on phase one of the Curly Leaf Pondweed (CLP) removal process in the chain of lakes. The council then considered whether it wanted to preceded with phase two of the project.

The council had approved contracting with Premier Lake Harvesting in March of this year after a Request for Proposal (RFP) process. Premier got on the lakes the week of May 18 and has been going though phase one since then, starting on Amber Lake and then Lake Sisseton and finally the north end of Budd Lake.

The plan for phase two is expected to be the rest of Budd Lake, Hall Lake and George Lake.

Dominic Cerise with Premier was present on Monday to recap their work thus far. He said they were on Amber Lake from May 19 to May 21 with two harvesters and spent 38 hours taking out eight boatloads of weeds totaling just over 19,000 pounds from 12 acres of the lake.

Cerise said that Sisseton was the more dense lake of the three that have been serviced.

“We were there from May 20th to June 2nd,” Cerise said. “For a grand total we were there for 111 hours and did a total disposal amount of 38 boatloads. That was covering 20 acres with the estimated weight of 90,278 pounds.”

He indicated some areas on a map that showed high density of weed, as determined by their permit from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

“We made pretty good coverage in all three of the areas. Way south is pretty bad. Most of our time was spent down there and I could see more harvesting being needed in that area. It is very dense and makes traffic hard for the boaters,” Cerise said.

Finally, he said they were on Budd Lake from June 3 to June 8 for a total amount of nearly 50 hours and that 13 acres were covered and 36,000 pounds of weed were removed.

Overall, Cerise said they spent 10 active days of harvesting spanning 198 hours and that the estimated weight of the vegetation removed has been 129,764 pounds.

Following the presentation, Council Member Britney Kawecki asked if the turions– the buds which are the main reproductive method of CLP–are at the surface and whether they have started to drop.

Cerise said as of last week the turions were still growing and have not dropped off yet, though he said they should be fully developed very soon.

Kawecki said she supports continuing with harvesting because the weeds need to come out.

However, she added, “I don’t know so much that it’s going to solve the problem now.”

She asked whether they will be able to get to George Lake and Cerise said that they need to check out the landing but he believes it will be possible.

“Especially with that lake being so shallow. Pretty much the lake is unusable for the people who live on it. We need to do something, even if it is purely cosmetic,” Kawecki said.

She said she foresees the city needing to do harvesting again next year, in addition to other ways treatments.

“The more that gets removed, the better off you are. Once those turions spread it’s just promoting future growth,” Cerise said. “Getting plant matter out is the number one biggest thing at this time. It’s not a yearly thing that you see results immediately after. It’s a consistent battle and maintenance type of thing.”

Kawecki asked whether Premier would be able to come to the city and start the process earlier next year and Cerise indicated that they could and said that the DNR permit wasn’t approved until May 15 this year.

“It was about a month long process to get approval for that,” Cerise said, adding that the city was responsive during the process.

When asked why the permit was delayed, Cerise said he was told the DNR was focused first on issuing herbicide treatment permits before they got to the harvesting permits.

Council Member James Kotewa made a motion to proceed with phase two of the of the CLP harvesting and removal with Premier. The motion passed unanimously.