I live along a lakeshore. For years, water has been my best companion. Its face changes moment to moment. Water is just a lady with a thousand faces. This spring, I saw a new face. In March, our neighbourhood experienced a very unpleasant smell and taste in the lake water. For days, its surface stayed still. Volvox algae was soon found out to be the source of problems. It is non-toxic, but meanwhile depletes lake oxygen as it dies off. The algae bloom tells us that our lake is processing a load of nutrients, which typically flow from human settlements. Our lake is a rural lake with forested park on…