Madison's lakes have reached their worst pollution levels since the 1950s'??when pollution was at its worst.
UW-Madison limnology professor Stephen Carpenter discussed the lakes at the North American Lake Management Society symposium last week.
'There have been some improvements since then,' he said. 'But we still have a long way to go.'
James Lorman, a biology professor at Edgewood College, said leaves, road salt, erosion sediment, geese and fertilizer runoff all increase phosphorus levels in the lake. The phosphorous is unlikely to leave.
'The focus is more on preventing [phosphorus], not so much getting rid of it, because once it's in the lake, there is not much you can take out,' Lorman said.
Phosphorus is the primary cause of algae blooms in the lakes, and some toxic blooms can cause illness or death, Carpenter said.
'The lake could be cleaned up a lot within 10 to 20 years by reducing erosion and phosphorus release,' Carpenter said. 'The children of today's UW students would enjoy a clean lake when they attend UW a generation from now.'
With cleaner lakes, future generations could better enjoy Madison, a city built on natural beauty, historian David Mollenhoff said.??
'While the rest of the country was marching to the trumpets of industrialization, Madison leaders were listening to the string sounds of beauty, scholarship and culture,' he said.??
Despite the lakes' influence on residents, Madisonians have done a lot over the years to affect water quality, Mollenhoff said.
'The greatest insult of all, was putting sewage in the lakes,' he said.
Carpenter said the pollution can make the lakes 'unpleasant' for boaters and swimmers, but that does not prevent Kellen O'Brien, UW-Madison graduate, from taking advantage of the lakeshores.
'I do enjoy skinny dipping,' O'Brien said. 'But every time I do so, I make sure to shower immediately after exiting.'
O'Brien said he primarily dips in the 'very sludgy' Lake Mendota, but has also visited Lake Wingra, where, 'there's a lot of pretty gross seaweed and green slime.'
UW-Madison senior Amy Sawyers also swims in the lakes, but said the pollution stops many from jumping in.
But according to Sawyers, the pollution provides an added element to the subculture of skinny-dippers at UW-Madison. 'Now it's not just that you're skinny-dipping,' Sawyers said. 'It's filth-dipping.'
