PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The largest lake in Pinellas County is currently undergoing a restoration project. The goal is to make Lake Seminole the healthiest it's ever been in decades. 

Dredging started this week on the lake and Pinellas County officials say it's the most important phase of the project. 

Here is the process currently taking place:

• 900,000 cubic yards of muck is being removed from Lake Seminole.
• Dredge barges will remove the muck from the bottom of the lake and transport it in tubes to the Dredge Material Management area. 
• From there, the water will go through a treatment process removing all the sediment. 
• It's then pumped back into the lake once it's cleaned up. 

"If we didn't do this big thing, the lake would continue to degrade and we'd see a lot more algea blooms, a lot stronger algae blooms, and a lot more vegetation that we really don't want in the lake. Non-native invasive vegetation would go around and also the water clarity would continue to decline," Rob Burns, with Pinellas County, said. 

The project is expected to take close to two years to complete and county officials said there will be minimal disruptions to residents. 

The cost for the restoration project will be about $19 million, which is funded by Penny for Pinellas, the Southwest Water Management District, and the Restore Act.