LAKE PEPIN, Minn. (KTTC) -- Lake Pepin is one of the most polluted lakes in the country, and the EPA is working on cleaning up.
"The amount of sediment that enters the lake annually is about one million metric tons, which would fill a city block in Minneapolis," says Mike McKay with the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance.
And that puts Lake Pepin on an endangered species list for lakes.
"Lake Pepin is filling up at ten times the rate of it's natural life right now," says McKay.
McKay says Lake Pepin could be no more in just 300 years.
And what is surprising to some, is that the pollution has little to do with the Twin Cities.
"In this case, 75 to 80 percent of this is coming from the Minnesota River basin," says McKay.
The effects of the sediment flow are so server they can be seen with the naked eye.
Those who fish and sail on Lake Pepin are worried about the problem.
"Certainly the recent studies about sedimentation have everyone concerned," says Sailor Steve Borchardt. "Not that it will impact us probably in our life time but we all want this resource to be here for future generations."
McKay believes this is one problem that will not be easy to fix.
"It's gonna be a series of solutions. There's no one magic bullet."
McKay says if the EPA and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency can fix the problems in Lake Pepin, they should be able to tackle all the water problems in Minnesota.
