Mark McConkey: The Cyanobacteria Threat

A few summers ago, I was out on a small lake in Ossipee when I noticed the water in a cove had taken on that greenish tinge that nobody around here wants to see. You know what I'm talking about. That algae bloom that signals something's wrong. I've lived and worked in Carroll County long enough to know that when our lakes start to suffer, everything suffers — the families who swim in them, the folks who fish them, the small business owners whose livelihoods depend on people wanting to come here in the first place.

That's not a small thing. That's a big part of the economy of the Mout Washington Valley and the Lakes Region wrapped up in the quality of our water.