Laserfiche WebLink
LOSING LAKES: Enjoyment of a Unique Metropolitan Resource is Threatened <br />Water quality is difficult and expensive to improve once a lake has been allowed to degrade. In-lake <br />restoration techniques are costly and often ineffective. While degradation of the lakes might be <br />impossible to stop, it can be minimized by treatments that control ninoff and nutrient loading. <br />RECOMMENDATIONS <br />We recommend: <br />□ Water quality goals should be based on proposed recreational uses of <br />the lakes. <br />While it may go without saying, local governments must actively develop recreation goals for lakes. <br />After determining how a lake will be used, its water quality can be managed for that use. A lake used <br />primarily for swimming, for example, must be managed very differently from one used for fishing. At <br />present, different agencies manage for recreational use and water quality (see Qiapter 5). We urge <br />these agencies to cooperate more in planning and management activities. <br />□ Agencies with control over whole lake watersheds should plan for and <br />manage lake water quality. <br />Watershed districts and water management organizations are the best agencies to protect water quah^ <br />by managing the effects of development in the watersheds. We believe management should turn to in ­ <br />lake restoration techniques only as a last resort to treat problems after watershed treatments have been <br />installed. <br />□ Monitoring of metropolitan lakes should be better coordinated and more <br />extensive at the level of watersheds.