San Jose leaders said Thursday they are ready to make Lake Cunningham swimmable again.
The city announced an $850,000 federal grant, obtained by Congressman Jimmy Panetta, that will kick-start the revitalization of Lake Cunningham Park.
"If we can have the power of the federal purse come into effect here in South San Jose, I’m more than happy to do that," Panetta said.
Paddle boats and row boats have been mothballed for years, mostly because of contaminants in the lake water.
"A lot of it is contamination from fecal matter, which is from the geese and the dogs that come around here" Alice Kaufman with Green Foothills said. "There's water quality issues just because it’s a lake where water flows in but doesn’t flow out."
Revitalization plans call for the implementation of a new water filtration process. Plans also call for the renovation of all the bathrooms.
City leaders got to work Thursday, removing some of the invasive non-native plants around the lake.
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"I’m leaning in and I'm going full steam ahead on making sure that I do everything possible to bring back Lake Cunningham to how I remember it as a kid," Councilman Domingo Candelas said.
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