BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820 & GLSPS
2022 Lake Phalen Beach Cleanup Dives

May 28, 2022

Photos for BSA Lake Phalen Cleanup Dives Event

Closing Report:

2022 Phalen Lake Closing Report

12th Annual Phalen Lake underwater beach cleanup

Saturday morning event, May 28, 2022, at the City of St. Paul’s Phalen Lake Beach House

1400 Phalen Drive, St. Paul, MN

Public swim beach area - removal of trash and debris from Lake Bottom including shoreline out to 25 feet in water depth.

May 28th, 2022, beach cleanup report – This was BSA Venture Crew 820’s twelfth annual Phalen Lake Spring Cleaning that had a rough early morning storm that past by 8:30AM, the clouds cleared out and it became a beautiful sunny 62-degree day. Surface water was a warm 63 degrees but changed the deeper you went to a chilly 52 degrees at the chains 23 feet below the surface. Visibility was 10 feet at 18 feet down and 15 feet down 23 to 25 feet down if the bottom did not get kicked up by fins. The recent heavy rains brought in too much runoff that caused low visibility.

Having 25 divers searching the lake bottom for debris made the task go by quickly. Most of the divers spent from 20 to 40 minutes under water depending on the depth of their zone they were coving.

A few of the shore support volunteers cleaned up the sand beach and some wadded in the shallow water to pick trash as well.

Makeup of the volunteer divers; 9 Youth and 15 Adult divers from BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820, Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society (GLSPS), Northland Scuba, other dive clubs, independent divers, including divers from Janesville and Independence Iowa. Seven additional parents that served as shore support. Eight of the volunteers are also Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society (GLSPS) members. Four families of divers in the group made for a great family scuba dive outing.

Three young 15-year-old female divers along with six female adult divers made for some great role modeling for the young ladies.

Kelsey Christensen a reporter for KSTP 5 with her cameraman interviewed twins McKenna and Declan Schultz, both before and after their dive and gave them a GOPRO to do some underwater filming picking up trash. (Great Job McKenna and Declan!!) KSTP Reporter Kelsey Christensen a certified scuba diver herself did a great job on the news story that aired both on the 6 and 10 o’clock news. KARE 11 cameraman came out right before lunch and put together a great story also, that aired on the 6 PM news only.

Finding a lot of debris was tough this year, as only 80 to 90 pounds was found compared to past cleanups. The divers still found glass, aluminum and tin pop cans, sunglasses, a knife, and other items found. An air lift bag was used to raise a 60-pound large folding aluminum rudder with wooded tiller handle over where the large dragon boats are moored. In addition to divers underwater, shore patrol collected a lot of debris on the beach and in shallow water.

I want to thank the City of St. Paul for having the changing rooms open for us today even though the facility was not scheduled to be open, Bart Schultz for bringing the BBQ grill and grilling the 56 hot dogs provided by BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820, and Ken and Mary Lillemo for bringing their large 10’x20’ pop-up tent shelter and taking care of the hot water for coco.

This was a free event for Venture Crew 80 members including the use of all the dive equipment, wet suits, boots, hood, gloves, BCD, and computerized regulators, plus all the participants had FREE tank of air and lunch provided by BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820.

GLSPS members and friends of GLSPS that provided shore support or scuba dove were

Wyatt Knight, Dean Soderbeck, Jim Matzke, Lisa Weis, Mary and Ken Lillemo, Barb and John Williamson, Tyler Anderson, Kathy Meek.

Next year we will clean up around the Lakeside Activity Center again. It has been about 4 years now since we cleaned up around the docks to the North of the Beach House.

Lake Phalen Beach Clean up Dives 2021

BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820 & GLSPS
2021 Lake Phalen Beach Cleanup Dives

May29, 2021

Lake Phalen Beach Cleanup Dive Photos

Closing Report:

BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820

2021 Phalen Lake Swim Beach Cleanup

Scuba Crew 820 News – May 29th, 2021

11th Annual Phalen Lake underwater beach cleanup

May 29th, 2021 Underwater beach cleanup – BSA Venture Crew 820’s eleventh annual Phalen Lake Spring Cleaning that occurred on a sunny 62 degree day with warm surface water at 64 degrees but changed the deeper you went, to a chilly 52 degrees at 23 feet below the surface. Visibility was 10 feet at 18 feet down and up to 20 feet at 23 feet down as long as the bottom did not get kicked up by divers fins.

Having 24 divers searching the lake bottom for debris made the task go by quickly. Most of the divers spent from 20 to 40 minutes under water depending on the depth of their zone they were coving.

A few of the shore support volunteers cleaned up the sand beach and some wadded in the show water to pick trash as well.

Makeup of the volunteer divers; 9 Youth and 7 Adult divers from BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820 teamed up with 4 additional divers from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society (GLSPS), and 3 more divers from other dive clubs for the under water cleanup. We had an additional 7 that served as shore support. Three of the Venture Crew divers are also GLSPS members.

Youngest was a 13 year old female diver, and the oldest diver was a 79 year old GLSPS member.

The majority of debris was found in the shallow water and out in the 20 foot depth area. An air lift bag was used to raise a 60 pound rubber base for a street sign. In addition to the rubber street sign base divers and shore patrol collected 250 to 300 pounds of trash including broken glass, bottles, jars, metal pop and beer cans. The afternoon dive we found golf balls and more discarded glass and cans.

I want to thank the City of St. Paul for having the changing rooms open for us today even though the facility was not scheduled to be open for another two weeks and to Bart Schultz for bringing the BBQ grill and 30 hamburgers that were grilled up with the 56 hot dogs provided by BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820.

This was a free event for Venture Crew 80 members including the use of all the dive equipment, wet suits, boots, hood, gloves, BCD, and computerized regulators, plus all the participants had FREE tank of air and lunch provided by BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820.

For additional information and to register for this event, call Dean Soderbeck BSA Crew Advisor @ (651)483-8596 or E-Mail: deansoderbeck@yahoo.com Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society www.glsps.org

Lake Phalen Beach Clean up Dives 2020

BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820 & GLSPS
2021 Lake Phalen Beach Cleanup Dives

May 23, 2020

Lake Phalen Beach Clean up Dives 2019

BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820 & GLSPS

2019 Phalen Lake Swim Beach Cleanup 

Saturday morning dive, May 25, 2019

Phalen Lake Beach House @ 1400 Phalen Drive, St. Paul, MN

Lake Phalen Beach Cleanup Dive Photos

Divers from all around the Twin Cities helped with the 9th annual BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820’s ‘Underwater Beach Clean-up’ event Saturday May 25h, 2019. Venture Crew 820 hosted the event and provided free air tanks to all the divers plus outfitted 14 youth divers with all of their dive equipment needs, as well as provided lunch to all the volunteers. WCCO channel 4 News covered the event this year which is always a treat for the scouts.  

A total of 30 volunteers participated in this event with GLSPS, including 19 BSA Venture Crew members, one 12 year old female diver diving with her two older brothers and her father, plus one returning diver from Hawaii to help out again this year.

With so many volunteers, the cleanup went quickly. Divers spent an average of half an hour under the chilly 52 degree water depending on the depth of their zone they were covering. The divers had cold weather wet suits, hoods, and gloves on to keep warm in the colder water especially for those who went down below 24 feet. The lake visibility was an astounding 20 plus feet this year, making it easier to find debris in shallow and deeper water, including: glass, pop & beer cans, plastic bags, lids, containers, sun glasses, dive mask, golf balls, monofilament fishing line, a street sign base, 2 large metal coated picnic table that we dragged out of the water, and other lost items from either last summer’s swim season or items left on the ice during the winter.

Emptying out mesh collection bags of all the debris found on the lake bottom including the two 210 pound steel picnic tables in the picture. They were found in 15 feet of water.

Saturday morning, the skies were sunny with air temps at 72 degrees, so when the divers suited up in their cold water dive equipment, they just wanted to get into the lake to cool off. What other sport can you go from heat exhaustion to hypothermia in a matter of minutes? The surface water was between 58 and 62 degrees but it quickly cooled off the deeper you went. At 15 to 26 feet down, the average water temperature was 53 to 55 degrees, and some divers went down below 28 feet with water temperatures dropping to 48 degrees.
 

To answer any questions on these outings or our upcoming outings with the BSA Venture Crew 820 please call Crew Advisor Dean Soderbeck.  Contact information is below. 


Dean Soderbeck
Project Leader and BSA Advisor
(651)-483-8596.        
deansoderbeck@yahoo.com  

Charter Partner;
Northland Scuba, Inc.  
Myron Haynes
8779 Columbine Road, Eden Prairie, MN 55344                                  
952-949-0909 

Charter Partner; Northland Scuba, Inc. 
8779 Columbine Road, Eden Prairie, MN 55344
952-949-0909
http://northlandscuba.com



Great lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society   

http://glsps.org  and http://facebook.com/glsps
info@glsps.org

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Lake Phalen Beach Clean up Dives 2018

BSA Scuba Venture Crew 820 & GLSPS

2018 Phalen Lake Swim Beach Cleanup