Madison’s trademark lakes have suffered in recent years. Swimmers have largely abandoned once-popular beaches, due to thick films of poisonous turquoise slime caused by blooms of blue-green algae. The main culprit is phosphorus — a nutrient that runs into the lakes and promotes algae growth. Back in 2012, a public private partnership called the Clean Lakes Alliance set out an ambitious goal to fix this problem: reduce the amount of phosphorus to Lakes Mendota and Monona by 50 percent. Paul Dearlove, Clean Lakes Alliance Deputy Director, joins us now to discuss how things are going at almost ten years into the program.
Photo by Clean Lakes Alliance
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