Million Dollar Grant Saves Lake

NBC15

"It means everything. I mean really this is my life almost."

Every summer for 76-summers Waldo Peterson of Madison has come with his family to Mirror Lake in Delton for vacation.

Peterson says, " And most of it passes from one generation to another generation rather than going on the market."

Peterson says in all that time he's never seen the lake look better.

He says, " The water clarity is the best it's been...I can't tell you when it was this nice."

According to the Mirror Lake Association the biggest problem they've had over the last few years has been the build up of excessive nutrients and sediments.

Peterson says, " It didn't look like this. It didn't look like this. It was totally different."

Recently the State of Wisconsin provided a million dollar stewardship grant to remove the sediment and nutrients that were building up.

Governor Jim Doyle says, " Given how tight the budgets have been in recent years if we had not had a dedicated fund specifically directed to making sure that public space is available for the people of this state it probably wouldn't have happened."

Today, Governor Doyle joined Peterson on a tour of the lake to see the progress that's been made.

Peterson says, " Now we don't know what it's going to be like next year. But for this year it's nothing but thumbs up."

And Peterson hopes it stays that way so his 77th summer on Lake Mirror will be just as enjoyable as this year has been.