In 2007, snowmelt and a wet winter sent unusually high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous into Standley Lake, a 13-billion-gallon reservoir in Colorado that provides water to the Cities of Westminster, Thornton, and Northglenn.“We weren’t expecting problems because after the initial flush, the water becomes very clean,” says water treatment analyst Kelly Cline at the Semper Water Treatment Facility in Westminster. “Furthermore, our zooplankton population peaks in mid-May and controls algae blooms even with incoming nutrients.”Nevertheless, this time an algal bloom did occur. The city responded with a new instrument that detects multiple species of microorganisms at the same time
