Menomonie (WQOW)- Two years ago, Wisconsin became the first state in the country to set up water quality standards to curb phosphorus pollution. On Thursday, the EPA added on to those standards.
A few local lakes are badly in need of some summer cleaning because algae blooms have turned the water green.
"On Lakes Tainter and Menomin, we had the highest number of any lake in the state of health reported incidents related to blue green algae," says DNR Lake Management Planner Buzz Sorge.
"The area would basically boom in real estate sales if we could ever prove that we've got a way of changing the quality of these waters," remarks Tainter/Menomin Lake Improvement Association President Dick Lamers.
In 2010, Wisconsin established water quality standards for phosphorus. The nutrient makes its way into lakes though a number of ways, mainly runoff, and can boost the growth of invasive species, like blue green algae blooms.
Water management experts say one pound of phosphorous dumped into local lakes can actually create up to 500 pounds of algae.
On Thursday, the EPA added another rule aimed at regulating phosphorus discharge.
"They are going to be required to reduce the amount of phosphorus from a level of a 1.0 to as low as 0.4 parts per million," Lamers recounts.
Phosphorus producers, like big sewage plants, can now work with smaller producers, such as small farms, to try to reduce the amount of phosphorus pollution.
"An example would be a treatment plant that would have to do an expansion where maybe it costs them several hundred dollars to remove a pound of phosphorus with the construction and upgrades they would have to meet," Sorge says. "If we go to a non-point source, a pound of phosphorus coming off agricultural land, that could be reduced anywhere $10 to $30 a pound."
"If we can find another piece of the puzzle, another way to help join forces with either point sources or non-point sources, getting them together to collaborate, to reduce any amount of phosphorus coming into these waters, that's just an immediate impact on us here in Tainter and Menomin," says Lamers. "We clearly are looking at two to three times the value increase in property if we would rid ourselves of the algae blooms."
People looking for additional water management information are encouraged to attend a conference at UW-Stout in Menomonie on March 14th.
