COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. – The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry and the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration have fined a diving weed removal company more than $730,000 for violating commercial regulations. diving operations after an employee drowned during a dive.
In May 2024, 18-year-old Joe Anderson died while working his summer job at Your Lake Aquatic Plant Management. At the time, he was doing one of his first dives to clear Lac Lavon Lake of weeds and debris. He did not surface after his dive.
According to an MNOSHA report, Anderson’s colleagues noticed they had not seen any bubbles and found him in 15 to 20 feet of water. He was unresponsive and his regulator was not in his mouth at the time. Anderson’s colleagues were able to pull him from the water and he was taken to a nearby hospital, but Anderson died a few days later.
In November, MNOSHA Compliance issued five willful violations of the commercial diving standard. MNOSHA’s investigation found that workers did not have the experience or training necessary to perform their jobs safely, workers were not trained in CPR or first aid, there was no safe practices manual and no standby diver was available during the diving operations.
Your Lake Aquatic Plant Management has filed a notice of contestation of the violations.
A similar death occurred in June 2022. A 20-year-old died at Lake Minnetonka after doing similar work for another company.
Note the above video originally aired on May 28, 2024
