APPLE VALLEY, Minn. — An investigation is underway after a man died while clearing weeds at Lac Lavon Lake in Apple Valley. That man, identified as Joe Anderson, was working for weed clearing service Your Lake for the summer.
"'Shocking' may be the better way to put it," Apple Valley Fire Chief Matt Nelson said. "This lake, I guess for Apple Valley, is a very calm lake."
Apple Valley Fire was one of several departments to respond when an initial call came in for someone not breathing at the lake.
Anderson's family shared in a post made online that this dive last Tuesday was Anderson's first. They say he had been learning how to use scuba equipment to clear weeds off the lake bottom.
The Dakota County Sheriff's Office is investigating, and says it is unable to verify the extent of Anderson's training, including if he was certified or not. KARE 11 reached out to Your Lake, asking if Anderson was certified, or if he received on-the-job training.
In an email, the company said, "All information available to the public is what the sheriff gave you."
"To put them into the water and not been certified, if they were doing in house training with none of the true basic needs, that's unbelievably extreme negligence," Butch Hendrick, who trains first responders on water rescues, said.
Hendrick says he still has many questions about what happened under the water, but one thing is clear – if Anderson wasn't trained, Hendrick says he shouldn't have been doing a job as dangerous as this one.
"This is a dangerous situation no matter what," Hendrick said. "His visibility is going to be extremely limited."
"I'd like to know what the qualifications were of the crew that was on the beach or in the water doing things," Hendrick continued. "Had they all been just trained in the last week? Who is in charge?"
The Dakota County Sheriff's Office says the medical examiner is still conducting its investigation.
Bethel University confirmed Anderson was a second-year PSEO student.
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