The creek behind my house went from clear to green in 5 years

I moved into this place in 2019 and used to see straight to the bottom of Mill Creek behind my backyard. Now it's this thick green mess with algae mats floating on top, probably from all the lawn fertilizer runoff from the new subdivisions up the road. The county tested it last summer and said phosphate levels were 3 times higher than 2015. Anyone else notice a local waterway turning into a swamp right in front of them?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantp141mo ago

Hold on. I live near a similar creek that gets that green every summer and it's been that way for decades. My neighbor's been here since the 90s and says it's always been a seasonal thing around July. Maybe check if the new subdivisions just changed how fast the water drains instead of the actual chemistry.

grays131mo ago

Didn't the water testing already rule that out though?

cora5181mo ago

And @grays13, I think those tests only look for specific chemicals though. They might miss stuff that builds up slowly over time like phosphate or silt. Plus if the drainage changed, the water might look different without actually being toxic.