Have you ever heard of a lake aging prematurely? Michelle Woolfolk has seen it happen. Woolfolk is a Water Resources Engineer for the City of Durham, NC, and she’s a guardian of Falls Lake. One of her responsibilities for the Stormwater Services Division is to prevent eutrophi- cation, a form of water pollution that can occur when excessive fertilizers or other chemicals enter lakes and rivers, stimulating algae growth. Decomposing algae robs the water of oxygen, sometimes suffocating fish and causing the lake to age too quickly. Falls Lake is a reservoir located in the Neuse River Basin, one of the fastest- growing river basins in the United States. It provides the drinking water for about half a million people in the Research T riangle Park area, including Raleigh, the

Join for free to read