New task force will organize efforts to clean lakes

Lake Mendota in August 2012Lakes blanketed with algae, as if covered by a thick film of green paint, are a common sight in Madison summers. Organizations, individuals, and county government representatives have all been working to address the algae, but until now they mostly approached the problem separately.

The cause for clean water took another step forward with the creation of a task force meant to help coordinate efforts to reduce phosphorus – and thus reduce toxic algae blooms that arise from phosphorus pollution – in the Yahara Watershed. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi signed the county resolution on Monday, Feb. 25 authorizing the formation of the Clear Lakes Task Force.

“From the county executive’s perspective, this is probably the most exciting public policy effort that’s under way right now in Dane County,” said Josh Wescott, the county executive’s chief of staff.

Many groups are tackling phosphorus pollution because of its knack for making bodies of water un-swimmable. The element seeps into the watershed from wastewater plants and farm and street runoff, encouraging the growth of toxic algae blooms that carry a strong stench and can cause health problems.

Wescott noted the numerous projects that will collaborate under the direction of the task force. They include efforts by organizations like Clean Wisconsin and agricultural group Yahara Pride, along with those by the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District through its unprecedented adaptive management pilot project.

“It’s not only county government [involved], but it’s farmers,” Wescott said. “It’s not only environmentalists, but it’s business types.”

Dane County Board Supervisor Sharon Corrigan sponsored the resolution and echoed Wescott’s enthusiasm for the cooperative aspect of the task force. She said its creation stemmed from a need to bring together the different groups working on reducing phosphorus to tackle the issue and to coordinate for deadlines, like those laid out by the adaptive management project.

Without a task force overseeing everything, some efforts to reduce phosphorus haven’t been working in coordination, according to Dane County Lakes and Watershed Commission Chair Melissa Malott. The resolution aims to fix this by helping county programs line up with the same purpose in mind: improving water quality.

“What we want to do is focus everyone on the goals of the pilot project and get everyone on the same page,” Malott said. “Having a public task force that’s looking over this and has public input and public scrutiny is one way to make sure that there’s some integrity in how choices are made.”

The task force will be charged with developing a plan to fulfill Dane County’s obligations to reduce phosphorus pollution, as required by the Yahara WINs (Yahara Watershed Improvement Network) Memorandum of Understanding.

Malott said the group will primarily focus on what needs to be done for the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District’s adaptive management project, which is currently focused on the pilot project area around Sixmile Creek, north of Lake Mendota. The project applies cost-effective methods to prevent phosphorus runoff by using a community approach; farms, municipalities, and others pool their resources and work together.

Some of the task force’s attention will also go toward collecting and analyzing data to determine how to take the project to full scale.

The goal of the project is to expand its runoff prevention efforts to the entire Yahara Watershed, which includes Lakes Mendota, Monona, Wingra, Waubesa, and Kegonsa. Malott said the decision to take it to full scale should be made by the end of next year.

While the task force was created to help Dane County meet deadlines for water quality standards, Corrigan emphasized the effort’s importance even if there weren’t such requirements.

“It’s in the interest of our community to have clean lakes,” she said. “They’re a huge part of our tourism economy and … our quality of life.”

Corrigan expressed excitement about the task force, both for the sake of having clean lakes and because the approaches to the problem are innovative and cost-effective, rather than relying on typical but inefficient solutions like buying expensive equipment.

And besides just protecting water quality, Malott said the task force will make sure their measures help protect the farming economy. She used the example of last year’s drought: in that situation, the group might recommend planting more grasses, which can decrease runoff and withstand drought better than other crops.

As farming makes up a large part of our local and state economy, she noted that efforts benefiting farmers benefit everyone.

Chief of Staff Josh Wescott said he expects County Executive Parisi to make appointments to the task force within the next couple of weeks. Following that, the group will be required to hold regularly scheduled public meetings, the first of which will likely happen sometime this spring.

Wescott noted that progress with the lakes may take a while to show after the group begins working, since the watershed is the product of decades of change. But the opportunity to bring diverse groups together in such a way may be a “once in a generation opportunity,” he said.

“The will is there and that is what is so exciting about getting the task force together,” Wescott said.“There’s a lot of energy and a lot of people ready to go. This task force will help make sure that that effort sort of stays on task.”

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