[ADEQ Media] ADEQ Director Owens Awards $54, 978 Grant for Water Quality Improvement Project at Lakeside Lake in Tucson

[media@lists.azdeq.gov]

ADEQ Director Owens Awards $54,978 Grant for Water Quality Improvement
Project 
at Lakeside Lake in Tucson

PHOENIX (June 22, 2007) - Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
(ADEQ) Director Steve Owens today announced that the department has
awarded a $54,978 grant to fund water quality improvement in Pima
County. 

The grant, to the City of Tucson's Parks and Recreation Department, will
improve fishing and other recreation at the city's Lakeside Lake,
located at Lakeside Park in Tucson. The lake was originally built as a
stormwater retention basin, then converted for recreational fishing in
1985. It receives water from stormwater runoff, groundwater and
reclaimed water from the Roger Road Wastewater Treatment Plant. An ADEQ
water quality study completed in 2005 showed the lake has excessive
levels of ammonia; high levels of phosphorus, a nutrient that causes
algae growth; and low dissolved oxygen levels due to algae growth.  

Under the grant, the city will improve water quality in the lake by
reducing drainage from surrounding park lands into the lake, providing
bait disposal locations for people who fish, and occasionally treating
the lake with alum, a chemical that will help reduce algae growth. The
city will also remove debris from the lake and surrounding park. 

"These funds will help protect water quality in Lakeside Lake," Owens
said. "We are pleased to support this important local effort."

The grant is funded with federal dollars provided to ADEQ under the
Clean Water Act. 

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News media interested in additional information on this or any other
topic concerning the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality should
contact the Office of Communications at (602) 771-2215 or via email at
communications@azdeq.gov.

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