CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N.Y. (WKBW) — Crews have removed nearly 23 million pounds of weeds from Chautauqua Lake this summer — twice as much as the entire previous season.

The massive weed removal effort followed what Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel called the worst weed season in recent memory for the lake's South Basin.

"I've had 80 and 90-year-olds come up to me and said we can't remember having a problem this bad. So it was significant, probably one of the worst we've seen in the history that anyone can remember," Wendel said.

Heather Nolan-Caskey, general manager of the Chautauqua Lake Association, said the organization removed weeds covering multiple football fields worth of lake surface.

"Everything all the way across was solid weeds," Nolan-Caskey said.

I met with homeowners i

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