FAQs

The City of Bloomington is planning on replacing the stormwater outlet of Pauly’s Pond. To do so, the water level must be temporarily lowered. Due to State regulations, the City needs support from property owners adjacent to Pauly’s Pond to do this project.

The outlet of Pauly's Pond is located on the south side of the pond, near the intersection of W 84th Street and Palmer Ave S, on City of Bloomington Property. 

No, construction equipment will be accessing the pond outlet via property owned by the City of Bloomington on the south side of the pond, off of W 84th Street.

The outlet of Pauly’s Pond is aging and deteriorating. The existing outlet structure is prone to clogging with debris. The new outlet will follow current design standards and will be less likely to clog with debris, which will result in more consistent water levels.  

Lowering the water level will create drier working conditions, which is critical to achieve a quality project.

The duration of the pond draw-down and construction of the new outlet structure is anticipated to take around 3 weeks. This project is weather dependent, meaning a large rain event could set back construction timelines if workers need to pump the pond down multiple times.

Pauly’s Pond is connected to the surrounding ponds, including Victoria, Oxmore, and Wanda Miller. This wetland complex is a large enough area that a few normal rainfalls will be all it takes to fill it back up.

There may be limited impact on fish populations. However, Pauly’s Pond is naturally a shallow-water wetland and does not support very many fish. The species that are present, like mud minnows, green sunfish, and black bullhead catfish, are very resilient and should rebound to normal populations levels after the project is complete. The City is following DNR guidance to lower water levels and perform construction activities during the time window provided by the DNR to protect wildlife, including fish. 

Pauly’s Pond is a part of a large wetland complex, and turtles are able to move between these areas and, overall, will be unaffected by the project. However, drawing down water on Pauly’s will probably stress the turtles that happen to be in it at the time of the project. Fortunately, the construction of the new outlet structure will not directly conflict with the turtles. The City is following DNR guidance to lower water levels and perform construction activities during the time window provided by the DNR to protect wildlife.

The drawdown will stress the aquatic vegetation but should not have much impact in the long run. City staff are aware of concerns regarding lily pad populations on Pauly’s Pond. A potential benefit of this work is that it will also stress the lily pad populations, though the water will not be down nearly long enough to have a significant impact on the population.

To limit impacts to species that may use Pauly’s Pond as an overwintering site, the work is scheduled to be completed sometime between April 15 and September 15, 2026. The project team will monitor precipitation forecasts within this window to select an opportune time to initiate work.  

Yes, this type of work is addressed as part of the City’s annual storm sewer maintenance project. There are several basins within Bloomington with aging outlet pipes that are in need of replacement. A few have already been replaced, such as East Tarnhill Pond, Victoria Pond, etc. Photos from East Tarnhill Pond before, during, and after outlet replacement are provided here (in the "Documents" section of this project page), to give a sense of what this type of work looks like.

Storm sewer infrastructure typically has a lifespan of 50-100 years, so once this project is completed, another replacement is not anticipated for several decades. The City of Bloomington completes regular inspections of infrastructure to inform maintenance needs, including minor repairs and cleaning, which may occur more frequently.

Notification postcards were sent to all property owners with land riparian to Pauly’s Pond.