RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif. — Throughout the 'California's Dying Lakes' series, we've seen some sobering images of some of California's beautiful blue lakes going green. Eagle Lake, Clear Lake and Lake Tahoe are each unique in the factors that most contribute to the water color and clarity changing, but they are unified on one front — finding a solution.
ABC10 meteorologist Rob Carlmark took a trip to Southern California's largest natural lake, Lake Elsinore. This lake is facing the same scenario, but the leaders of the community surrounding the lake are taking the next step. They put forth real action and are getting results.
If you haven't heard of Lake Elsinore, it’s a place that has what you would want in a smaller town. It has a quaint main street, with trees lining brick blocks of a downtown with mom and pop shops. It has a barber shop with an old barber pole and a popular dive bar, the Wreck.
Lake Elsinore’s Historical Society says it's kept people coming and staying since the 1800s. Celebrities like Steve McQueen and the original Dracula, Bela Lugosi, visited often decades ago for work and leisure, but the star of the town is the lake.
It's the largest natural freshwater lake in Southern California. It is fairly shallow but six miles long and the surface area is nearly 3,000 acres.
"The lake is the jewel of the city and it is the centerpiece. We attract visitors from all over the world," said mayor Steve Manos.
When the lake turned green with toxic cyanobacteria algae in 2022, the town was heavily impacted. They've had numerous periods of the water turning green, but the outbreak prompted a six-month closure.
Residents demanded Lake Elsinore’s mayor and city council address the issue.
"It tends to have this particular problem with cyanobacteria where the algae blooms come about each summer. In past years it's caused massive fish kills which then in turn cause other problems and feeds the ongoing annual problem of the large algae blooms," said Manos about the lake.
All lakes have different factors aiding algae growth. At Lake Elsinore, treated wastewater adds elements like phosphorus that helps algae grow. The water quality can also be affected by decades of hotter years with longer periods of drought. A prolonged warmer, shallow water table adds to more devastating blooms. The lake went through one of its most dangerous outbreaks of toxic green algae in March 2023.
Before the outbreak, the city spent millions upgrading businesses and boat launches at their Launch Pointe facility. These campgrounds and restaurants were not used to their full potential when the lake closed.
The mayor says the residents spoke up.
"They want to see something done and no matter how difficult that is, they'd like to go ahead and see us make the effort," said Manos.
He tasked the city council and others, like community support manager Adam Gufarotti, to come up with a plan to save the lake.
"We are really pushing hard to make changes now. Our residents deserve this, the region deserves a lake that they can swim in year-round and we are going to deliver on that," Gufarotti said during a tour of the lake in August.
He also adds they planned to move quickly, something even residents may not have expected. The city passed a sweeping lake management plan during the lake’s closure and within months, they had the first pieces of a purification puzzle in place.
Among the many things the city of Lake Elsinore has tried to do in the lake to help the water quality is a floating nanobubbler. They say they are getting results.
A barge keeps the nanobubbler in place, which emits very tiny bubbles in a test portion in the lake that are suspended in the water column instead of floating up. This process is designed to disrupt the typical lifecycle of algae growth and improve clarity.
The city installed a test bubbler on the north side of the lake. That year, mother nature also provided ample rain over the winter, and officials saw results within the first year.
During the visit in August, Gufarotti compared satellite images of the outbreak in March 2023 to the much cleaner lake in March 2024.
The color and clarity of the lake changed. In March 2024, people could see 16 feet under the surface of the lake, and good healthy algae was growing at the bottom.
Gufarotti said the locals were sounding off on social media.
"People were posting photos and other ones were like, 'That can't be Lake Elsinore,' and sure enough, more and more people came down, saw it and said, 'Yes, that's Lake Elsinore,' and then we had our 30 year residents come and say, 'I've lived here my whole life ... and I've never seen Lake Elsinore that clear,'" said Gufarotti.
Manos says the nanobubbler plan will expand with plans to spend $8 million on more, larger nano-bubblers.
"Redemption and certainly hope sprung anew. During the spring time, we saw some very clear water and a very good result that I believe changed a lot of opinions as to what was possible," he said.
For Lake Elsinore, this is just the beginning. In future years, it will likely be warmer with more droughts. Keeping phosphorus in check will also be a challenge.
It's a big problem with no silver bullet, but people are fighting for this little lake town.
"We all as humans deserve a place to swim and enjoy. We need that as part of our life. It's part of our mental health. We need a place to stretch our legs and swim," said Gufarotti.
This approach and effort to keep Lake Elsinore from going dramatically green is gaining international attention. A group from South Africa paid a visit to their first "Global Water Summit" in September to discuss their similar green lake issues and to find solutions, too.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10 | Tiny threat, big impact: invasive snails thrive in Lake Tahoe
