What Is Being Done to Manage and Protect the Lakes

Recommended water quality protection and management programs for the Yahara lakes are presented in the Dane County Water Quality Plan, published in 1979 by the Dane County Regional Planning Commission. Since that time, several of the recommendations in the plan have been implemented. The basic strategy to improve water quality in the Yahara lakes is to reduce non-point source contributions of nutrients, most importantly phosphorus, to the lakes. This has been done by land management and source controls to reduce erosion and phosphorus in runoff, and by protecting stream corridors, wetlands and floodplains. A continuing commitment to controlling nuisance conditions (i.e., weed, algae and shoreline appearance) in the lakes themselves is also occurring. The following is a list of measures that have been taken to reduce nutrient and pollutant loadings and provide institutional coordination and support to better manage the Yahara lakes.

Watershed Management

• Remaining sewage treatment plant discharges of nutrients and pollutants have been diverted from the lakes.
• Six mile-Pheasant Branch Creek (contributing almost 50% of the phosphorus loading to Lake Mendota) was designated a priority watershed in 1980 by the state. A watershed plan was developed. When the project is completed in 1989, several hundred thousand dollars in state and local funds will have been spent for installing non-point source pollution control practices. These include soil conservation and livestock waste management in rural areas, and streambank stabilization (as shown below) and stormwater controls in urban areas.
• The Yahara-Monona watershed (the land area draining to Lakes Monona and Waubesa) was also designated as a priority watershed in 1988. A detailed watershed plan is being developed to reduce non-point source water pollution in the watershed.
• A watershed improvement program has been adopted for Starkwater Creek, a major tributary to Lake Monona, The City of Madison has budgeted funds for a five-year program of stream improvement work, land acquisition, bikeway development and landscape enhancements.
• A model erosion and stormwater control ordinance (for nonagricultural land-distributing activities) was prepared for local units of government as part of the Water Quality Plan. Ordinances have now been enacted by many communities in the watershed.
• Dane County has expanded erosion control requirements from subdivision plats to include most commercial and large-scale developments.
• Environmental corridors (open space areas of sensitive land including stream corridors, shorelands, wetlands and floodplains) and wetland zoning have been adopted by the Regional Planning Commission and most communities in the Yahara watershed. In the central urban area, 11,000 acres of land (20% of the total land area) are now in environmental corridors and receive protection from adverse development.

Lake Management

• Many lake services (e.g., weed harvesting, lake level management, dredging and water safety patrol) for all the Yahara lakes have been transferred to Dane County to consolidate and improve management efforts.
• The City of Madison has been engaged in a stabilization/riprap program on city-owned shorelines on Lakes Mendota and Monona. Since 1986 a shore-zone clean-up program has been conducted on Lake Monona, and a volunteer lakeshore cleanup was conducted on the Yahara lakes in 1988.
• Dane County formed a Lakes and Watershed Management Commission in 1988. The County has a Watershed Management Coordinator to provide leadership and coordination in managing, maintaining and improving all of the county's water resources.
• In addition, a number of follow-up studies and demonstration projects have been conducted by the Regional Planning Commission, the state, and local units addressing a variety of issues, including better methods of shoreline weed control, dredging needs, problems and issues related to water recreation on the lakes, fisheries management, and bio-manipulation of the food chain to affect algae populations.