The US Environmental Protection Agency and Burlington Northern Santa Fe contractors expect to start Whitefish Lake dredging work in the near future, but their first concern is inspecting all water bound vessels for aquatic invasive species.

We caught up with officials at Depot Park who were carefully power washing and looking at the 22 boats that will take the journey to Mackinaw Bay to start the project. They say they're looking for zebra mussels and any other aquatic invasive species that can harm the lake's ecosystem.

"We go over all the surfaces, try to look inside the bilge compartments and things like that to make sure that nothing is stowed away on the vessels," said on-site coordinator Steven Merritt, "And then anything that gets flagged or presence of something that looks suspicious we'll pressure wash it with high temperature water to make sure those organisms are cooked off."

FWP officials looked over the boats this afternoon for final inspection. Whitefish Lake dredging is set to kick off on May 29th.