Little Rock Lake Slowly Improving Two Years After Drawdown

RICE -- Nearly two years after drawing down Little Rock Lake to improve the water quality, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is seeing some modest success.

Eric Altena is the Area Fisheries Manager and was tasked with overseeing the project. He says the goal was to improve water clarity, decrease the amount of phosphorous in the lake and increase fish and wildlife habitat...

We've increased water clarity by over 50%. We've had decreased phosphorous from 300-parts-per-billion to around 100-parts-per-billion and just that reduction in phosphorous is actually a big benefit. And then we've had an increase in vegetation by almost 60%.

Altena says with the drought conditions we are experiencing there are some algae blooms appearing a bit earlier than normal.

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Overall, Altena says Little Rock Lake is improving, albeit at a slower pace than most people had hoped it would.

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Categories: St. Cloud News