Madison Reporter

An organization working to improve water quality at Dane County's Yahara Watershed and its five lakes in order to bring it up to federal water quality and usability standards is looking for input from the community to develop a plan of action.

The Clean Lakes Alliance has made it easy for residents to make suggestions by participating in an online survey.

"Do you want to help make our Dane County lakes healthier? Take the Yahara CLEAN Compact Community Survey to help guide the development of a new, community action plan for improved lake health," state Rep. Jimmy Anderson (D-Fitchburg) wrote in a tweet late last month. "Ensure your voice is heard!"

The community survey, sent through SurveyMonkey, was created to get input from people who live in the surrounding area on the use and proper development of the Yahara Watershed that fail to meet the minimum federal water satiety standards despite years of work and substantial financial investments.

The push to get ideas from residents came from the Clean Lakes Alliance, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of the entire Yahara watershed. 

According to the organization's website, the Clean Lakes Alliance has created the Yahara CLEAN Compact which includes 19 members that have a goal of improving the conditions of the five main lakes and nine beaches by reducing cyanobacteria.