If there’s one thing that Clean Lakes Alliance Vice President James Tye wants you to know about Madison’s lakes and the danger they still face, it’s this: Just one pound of phosphorous leaked into a lake produces 500 pounds of algae.
It’s a jarring statistic, and it emphasizes just how fragile our lakes’ health is, how urgent a task keeping them clean has become, and how vital awareness is to the ongoing broad-based community effort to keep our lakes useable and Madison the envy of other Midwestern towns.
This year’s Clean Lakes Festival, which took place the weekend of July 27, was the latest indication of how serious the effort is to keep the health of the lakes top of mind for Madison’s residents. The festival moved from its usual spot on Olin Park to Law Park next to the Monona Terrace. That move, said organizers, was made in order to heighten the festival’s visibility.
| “I’ve had direct experiences recruiting people where I’ve had real estate agents in this town tell people I’ve been trying to recruit that the lakes are filthy and they’ll be closed.” — Dave Lumley, CEO, Spectrum Brands |
It’s also a subtle reminder that, while much progress has been made — thanks in large part to a comprehensive effort led by local businesses, government entities, and environmental organizations — the fight is not over yet, and it’s not the time for the city’s residents to take their eye off the ball.
“I don’t think anyone quite understands what happens if our lakes close,” said Dave Lumley, CEO of Spectrum Brands, a major partner of Clean Lakes Alliance and a strong advocate for the health of the Yahara Lakes. “I think they just think that magically things are going to be okay. They’re not going to be okay. You can look back at what happened to Cleveland when the river closed and started on fire. So much depends on the image of Madison, on the lakes and the cleanliness of them and our recreation. Just imagine Madison without the lakes and with just farm field. Just picture that, and I think everyone would get a better feeling for it.”
No one is suggesting that Greater Madison’s lakes are in imminent danger of closing, but there was a time not so long ago when that outcome was not out of the question. Back in 2006, a high level of phosphorous in the Yahara Lakes — Mendota, Monona, Wingra, Waubesa, and Kegonsa — led to a large algae bloom that put the lakes “on the cusp of being considered to be put on the 303(d) [impaired water] list,” said Tye.
The upside to getting put on that list is that you get the attention of the federal government, which can then provide more resources to address water quality. The downside is that, well, you get the attention of the federal government, and local control is for the most part superseded.
“There’s also not a direct path to get off the 303(d) list, and you can talk to a variety of people and it’s a very clear measure on how you get on, but it’s harder to get off the list,” said Tye.
That close call prompted city, county, and state governments to spring into action, and in September of 2010, the Yahara CLEAN report, which included a list of 70 actions the area could take to reinvigorate the lakes, was finished. The list was narrowed, and with the backing of the Clean Lakes Alliance, the Yahara Lakes Association, and businesses like Spectrum Brands, Lands’ End, Thermo Fisher Scientific, MG&E, and Alliant Energy, 14 of those actions were undertaken with a goal of reducing phosphorous in the lakes by 50%.
The cost to implement all those actions was determined to be around $78 million, after a deduction of $49.5 million in private business investment in community manure digesters. And since 70% of the phosphorous reduction was slated to come from rural areas, where manure runoff is a major problem, the business community’s contribution has clearly been indispensible.
But it’s not just the economic clout the business community has brought to the table that’s helped make a difference. Madison-area businesses have also taken on a leadership role and helped heighten awareness about the state of the lakes. That’s an acknowledgment, perhaps, that the business community’s health is inextricably tied to the health of the community at large.
“It’s very serious because they look at it as an economic issue and a quality of life issue for their employees,” said Tye. “So it’s really twofold. One, they can’t attract talent to Madison if people don’t have a place to recreate, they just can’t do it. Two, for the people who live here, it’s a quality-of-life issue. You want your employees to be able to enjoy the benefits of being here, so they have all stepped up to do that. And it brings down property values — not just those lake homes but all the homes. If you take the lakes away from Madison, you’re a state capital with a university. You might as well be Lincoln, Neb. You’re surrounded by farm fields and you have a state capital and a university.”
Clean lakes, better prospects
Lumley echoes some of those same concerns about employee recruitment and retention. He said that when he arrived at Spectrum in 2006, the company had a variety of charitable partners that were all over the map. His first goal, he said, was to find a cause that could benefit everyone in the company as well as everyone in the community. As a result, Spectrum formed a partnership with the Clean Lakes Alliance.
While pure altruism certainly came into play in that decision, the need to recruit qualified employees also made maintaining Madison’s unique allure crucial.
“I’ve had direct experiences recruiting people where I’ve had real estate agents in this town tell people I’ve been trying to recruit that the lakes are filthy and they’ll be closed and there’s algae in them — their kids can’t go in them — don’t buy a house on the lake,” said Lumley. “And I think that’s turned around quite a bit in the last three or four years, but you don’t want that happening. So I think it’s a great opportunity for any business to get involved at any level. I mean, it’s nice to put on fireworks or to put on a soccer match or something, but to clean the very water you’re dependent on is pretty important.”
The importance of the lakes to both economic activity and quality of life have allowed Madison’s public and private stakeholders to get off to a promising start, and the participation of these economic heavy hitters has only served to drive the message home to the rest of the business community that this is an issue that transcends the sometimes rancorous partisan dialogue that can take the wind out of the sails of other environmental initiatives.
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“We’re all in this together, and we can’t do it alone,” said Randy Peterson, senior director of engineering, corporate services, and sustainability for Lands’ End. “I don’t think any one of the companies that are currently involved could go it alone. We need each other and we need each other’s support. It’s a big project.”
For Lands’ End, which recruits from all over the country, Madison is considered a showcase, and the beauty of the lakes is important to the success of the company. In addition, the company’s employees have identified cleaning up the lakes as an important initiative.
“At Lands’ End, we say we’re charting a course for sustainability, and this is part of it,” said Peterson. “It’s the community outreach effort, it’s volunteerism, it’s participation, and also some financial support. So this is one aspect of our total sustainability program at Lands’ End.”
Stormy weather
But while much progress is being made, thanks to the efforts of the business community and others, Tye isn’t ready to declare victory just yet. As anyone who’s tried to plan an outdoor event this year can tell you, the weather has been nothing if not unpredictable the past few years.
“Unfortunately, since about 1999 climate change has happened, and now we’re getting these mini flash floods, where you get a lot of rain in a very short period of time,” said Tye. “And what happens with that is the rain doesn’t have time to settle into the ground, and it sort of runs off the top and goes into the storm-water system, and on the farms it goes into the creeks and then everything ends up in our lakes. So all the good work that was done has helped, but now climate change has happened. …
“If we hadn’t done all this work in the last 10 years or the last 20 years to protect our lakes, we’d be much worse off, but we need to double down on our efforts now because of these rain events.”
Of course, while local businesses, government entities, and organizations like the Clean Lakes Alliance are doing much of the heavy lifting, Tye notes that everyone in the area can do his or her part to keep phosphorous out of the lakes.
“We have a Citizen Action Committee, and that committee is going to look at what your church, your home, your business can do,” said Tye. “All those places have a piece of property, they all have a parking lot, they all have leaves, and we’re talking about how you can rate your yard or the land around your business just like how you rate for construction. You can rate construction for LEED certification, so we’re going to come out with this plan next year in April on how you’ll be able to easily rate your land if you’re being good for the lakes.
“Until then, people should know that the biggest culprit for the urban areas is actually the leaves. The leaves start to decompose, and if they’re not kept out of the streets and off the curbs and gutters, they actually wash right into the lake. They decompose, and they have high levels of phosphorous in them.”
In short, says Tye, all residents need to be mindful of what’s on their land, because in many cases, it won’t stay there.
“There is a phosphorous ban in Dane County, but people still use some chemicals,” said Tye. “So you need to remember that anything you put on the ground ends up in the lakes.”
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