Idaho Community Launches Floating Island to Clean Lake

HAYDEN LAKE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho homeowner's association this week installed a floating island on a polluted lake that will help suck up phosphorus, a bid to improve water quality impaired for years by rapid residential development.

The Spokesman-Review reports the project, financed by the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, was first tested at a small private pond starting a year ago. After water quality improved, KEA Executive Director Adrienne Cronebaugh and her group opted to expand it to Hayden Lake.

Diane Lawrence, who belongs to the McCauley Emerald Homeowners Association, calls 25-acre McLeans Bay where her community is located the "perfect petri dish" for the project. Here, water lilies that thrive on phosphorus dominate the surface, and underwater weeds are a problem for boaters. There have been problems with water clarity, too.