The following is from an article by Taylor Ollman in the Fall 1983 PLTA BULLETIN:
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency studied
the lake in 1974 and determined that adding phosphorus
alone to Lake Travis water could result in
50 times as much algae being produced. With the
additional phosphorus, the water became nitrogen
limited - adding nitrogen too resulted 90-780 times
as much algae as grew in standard lake water. Of
course sewage and storm runoff carry large amounts
of nitrogen and other nutrients to the lake as well as
phosphorus.
This is the reason that we are so concerned with
phosphorus pollution of the lakes. The increased
algae clouds the water, fouls boat bottoms and water
treatment equipment, and then dies and decays
robbing the lower strata of oxygen and releasing toxic
anaerobic decay products. The lake fills with mats of
floating vegetation; light does not penetrate; periodic
fish kills occur and an occasional skier or swimmer
disappears in a tangle of weeds not to appear again
for several weeks. This process of lake decay is called
EUTROPHICATION. Eutrophic lakes are all too
common in the United States as it is. We cannot allow
the beautiful Highland Lakes to be easily lost to this
process."
