Laguna Lake in SLO looks almost full again after going dry
What a difference a few months — and nearly 19 inches of rain — can make. San Luis Obispo’s Laguna Lake is looking almost full again, after going dry last fall.
A puddle of water started growing after some welcome January storms, and more recent rains helped the lake fill up even more. The lake is now 6 to 8 feet deep in some places, though only a foot or two in other areas, San Luis Obispo Natural Resources Manager Bob Hill said Monday.
“As soon as there was water, we started to see birds come back,” Hill said. “It was really remarkable.”
In January, the San Luis Obispo City Council approved an agreement for consulting firm MNS Engineers Inc. to survey the lake and design three dredging projects and one excavation option for city leaders to consider.
Last week, a geotechnical team from Kinnetic Laboratories Inc. and Leighton Group, working under the consulting firm, took a total of nine “vibracore” soil samples from different locations in the lake to better understand the sediment layers at various depths below the lake bottom.
The City Council is tentatively set to get a look on June 21 at a few different sediment removal projects for the lake, as well as associated costs and possible financing options, Hill said.
This story was originally published April 4, 2016 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Laguna Lake in SLO looks almost full again after going dry."