Althouse: "Five-hundred gallons of dye bought with nearly $30,000 in taxpayers' money has turned the 267-acre Lake Delton to a tranquil, tourist-attracting aqua-blue..."

July 29, 2012

"Five-hundred gallons of dye bought with nearly $30,000 in taxpayers' money has turned the 267-acre Lake Delton to a tranquil, tourist-attracting aqua-blue..."

"'I think the proof is in the pudding if you look at the lake. You had seen it as pea soup and green, and if you look at it today, it's beautiful...'"

25 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Now your lake looks marvelous darling.

Axelro will likely hire the men who thought of that solution.

But are the lake's tuna blue fins yet?; 7/29/12, 7:33 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Isn't that misleading to people who would not want to swim in a green lake?; 7/29/12, 7:59 AM
The Drill SGT said...: Freeman,

The possibilities for lawsuits abound.

Another Democratic boon to the trial lawyers, and the dye only costs 10 grand a week :); 7/29/12, 8:11 AM
rcommal said...: The article answered my immediate question: So, how often will touch-ups be required to maintain that color job? Because the maintenance costs are always the real bitch, financially speaking. (Or is this a one-off, for some event that will bring in more tax revenue than the amount of public dollars that were expended?)

If I had to have refreshes that often for my own color job--which is at least paid for solely by me--I'd give up the efforts at illusion and embrace the gray or shave my head.

How do we know the dye is harmless, anyway? What exactly is being used?

---

Love the comment at the article about peeing and color alteration. I should think anyone who's ever used a toilet with one of those colored sanitizers would get a laugh out of that. And with public expenditures like that, a little comic relief can't hurt, right?; 7/29/12, 8:17 AM
rhhardin said...: In the year fourteen hundred and ninety three
Columbus sailed the dark green sea; 7/29/12, 8:19 AM
wef said...: Typical of politicians: short-term gestures with other people's money.; 7/29/12, 8:33 AM
chickelit said...: @garage mahal: Blue gills are still good eatin' around there, right?; 7/29/12, 9:00 AM
chuck said...: “Would you tell me, please,” said Alice, a little timidly, “why you are painting those roses?”

Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began, in a low voice, “Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a red rose tree, and we put a white one in by mistake...”; 7/29/12, 9:07 AM
chickelit said...: Looky here! You can buy the dye through the Althouse link: link; 7/29/12, 9:10 AM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Yuck. We need to get a handle on what is upstream. Pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and other things.; 7/29/12, 9:14 AM
chickelit said...: rcommal wrote: How do we know the dye is harmless, anyway? What exactly is being used?

The dye is most likely a cyanine derivative.

Scary sounding name, huh? Just image the headlines: "They put cyanine in the lake!" Bullshit though.
The name has nothing to do with cyanide--though they do share a common etymology. Palladian, if he's around, can tell us about cyanide and Prussian Blue.; 7/29/12, 9:19 AM
edutcher said...: What do the do when it rains?

Oh, yeah, it won't till October.; 7/29/12, 9:36 AM
Peter said...: It would have been much funnier if a prankster had substituted yellow or pink dye.; 7/29/12, 9:42 AM
FleetUSA said...: I agree with Freeman why swim in that...blue skin?; 7/29/12, 9:57 AM
Dante said...: It's not whether you are doing well, it's whether you think feel you are doing well.; 7/29/12, 10:19 AM
garage mahal said...: @garage mahal: Blue gills are still good eatin' around there, right?

After dyeing? No idea. We drove through the Dells yesterday and I saw people fishing from shore.

It was dyed for the Tommy Bartlett ski show I'm sure, the color will last just for the busy season.

Remember Lake Delton completely drained in 2008 from flooding. It's basically a new lake!; 7/29/12, 10:35 AM
chickelit said...: Remember Lake Delton completely drained in 2008 from flooding. It's basically a new lake!

I was there a few weeks before that in 2008. Rode the "Ducks" with the kids.; 7/29/12, 10:40 AM
chickelit said...: @garage: That was dramatic footage. It reminds me of what it must have been like in 1905 when the Colorado River changed course, creating the Salton Sea. That man made catastrophe continued until finally the Feds stepped in. Ultimately, the Hoover Dam was built.; 7/29/12, 10:53 AM
garage mahal said...: My wife broke water during that deluge. (low pressure?)The only time the basement has ever flooded that I know of.

Pretty incredible, the whole lake, just gone. So how bad could the lake even be now when it's a 4 year old lake? That's what I don't get.; 7/29/12, 10:59 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Geeeze.....it is a lake, not a swimming pool! Lakes have stuff in them that can make the water less than crystal clear. Especially when the weather gets warm...algae bloom.

BUT, if there is a pollution problem, perhaps a better idea would be trying to fix THAT instead of covering it up with blue dye and pretending that it is a clear sky blue lake.; 7/29/12, 11:59 AM
coketown said...: I thought the pudding's proof was in the eating. I don't understand this new idiom: the proof is in the pudding. What is the pudding? And how much do tou have to eat to get to the proof? Why can't people leave pea-green lakes and quaint idioms alone?; 7/29/12, 1:13 PM
jimspice said...: $60 a gallon? Couldn't they get a bulk discount?; 7/29/12, 1:31 PM
Wally Kalbacken said...: Dannika Lewis needs to step back from the training table, remove the feedbag, so-to-speak.; 7/29/12, 4:27 PM
TobyTucker said...: I don't know where you got the quote for the article header, but the article you linked to states specifically that the money for this came from tourism derived funds, NOT the local taxpayers.; 7/29/12, 5:26 PM
mariner said...: Proving once again that for many, appearances are more important than reality.; 7/30/12, 11:08 AM