The Division of Water Quality is advocating that the best way to reduce the lake's phosphorus will be to require the waste treatment facilities to remove phosphorus from their effluent flow through a biological phosphorus removal process.

Costs for the process could be millions of dollars, depending on the size of the waste treatment plant, and the cost would most likely be carried on the shoulders of Utah County's municipalities.

Provo's deputy public works director, Greg Beckstrom, said the potential cost isn't the greatest cause for concern, but it is the lack of assurance that a biological phosphorus removal system will work.

"I don't think the municipalities will be opposed to (taking a biological treatment approach), but I think they will want to see some documentation saying this is going to be a beneficial result of that process before they pony up the money," Beckstrom said.

Wham says the division will continue to study the lake to try to find more conclusive data on the effect a reduced amount of phosphorus in the water will have on the lake. One unknown factor Wham faces is the impact the June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program will have on the lake's ecosystem and phosphorus levels.

The program is focused on removing carp from the lake to allow the June Sucker to flourish again in its native environment, but the carp may be one factor that has kept the lake from turning into a colossal algae bloom.

The carp keep the water murky by constantly stirring up the lake's sediment, so not as much light can filter through to feed the algae. If more light filtered through the water, more algae could grow, Wham says.

Still, Reed Harris, program manager for the June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program, says if Utah Lake is ever going to be restored to a healthy and natural state, the carp need to be removed.

"If carp remain in the system and it continues to go the way it is now, it will only get worse, it will never get better," Harris said. "When you look at all the number of people that are living around the lake, they've decided a change needs to take place and it will never happen with the number of carp that are in the system. ... It behooves us all as we look into the future to try and solve these ecological problems that are out there as well as the chemical problems in the lake. I don't think there's an option."

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On the Web

A copy of the Division of Water Quality's study on Utah Lake can be found online at the division's Web site: www.waterquality.utah.gov/TMDL. The division will be accepting public comments on the document until the end of August.

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E-mail: achoate@desnews.com