Wausau-Area Pond Could Soon Undergo Cleanup

Efforts are underway to clean up a popular Wausau-area fishing spot.

Bluegill Bay Pond in Rib Mountain is a great place for children to throw in a bobber in springtime, but by mid-summer algae blooms and weed growth choke the surface.

“You’ve got aquatic vegetation in there that grows up annually, and then it dies and settles out. So we’ve accumulated essentially an organic muck on the bottom,” said Bill Duncanson, the Marathon County director of parks, recreation and forestry.

Duncanson said there’s some nasty stuff in that muck.

“There’s a variety of contaminants including some heavy metals that’s the same as the bottom in the entire Wisconsin River from the industrial past,” he said.

A newly released study commissioned by the Rotary Club of Wausau and the Greenheck Foundation recommends dredging the pond at an estimated cost of $180,000, a process that needs Department of Natural Resources approval.