COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Workers are dredging in Council Bluffs’ Lake Manawa for the first time in decades as part of an effort to improve its water clarity and eliminate algae blooms. The Daily Nonpareil reports a dredging barge is slowly making its way across the 715-acre lake, removing sand from the lake bottom. Crews are concentrating on a 60-acre area, where they want to increase depths to a maximum of 16 feet deep.

The lake now has a maximum depth of 12 feet with large areas only 6 or 7 feet deep. It’s the first dredging of Lake Manawa since 1982. The work will cost $4.2 million, paid from a statewide lake restoration fund. The company doing the work plans to remove 500,000 cubic yards of sand from the lake bottom.