The last serious monitoring occurred in the mid-1980s as part of a graduate student's work on a thesis, said Jack Stanford, director of the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station at Yellow Bay. In the years since, state officials have monitored some of the streams feeding Whitefish Lake, and volunteer workers have superficially monitored the lake itself. The study in the 1960s found algae production was less than in Flathead Lake. But typically, as development increases, so does growth of algae which are fed by nutrients entering the water from various sources. They include lawns, street drains, septic tanks, sewage treatment plants and roads.
Nutrients pause in places such as Whitefish Lake before moving downstream.
Whitefish and Flathead lakes are part of a lake system, all of which Stanford would like to study. For years, the UM research station at Yellow Bay has been the water-quality watchdog for Flathead Lake. Stanford said it is time to broaden the station's scope. Fish made the rounds of Butte's celebrations last year to prepare for the essay. We struggled mightily but we came up short.