BATON ROUGE- Progress is finally being made in the ongoing algae problem in Baton Rouge's City Park Lake. Herbicide treatment was used as a last resort to clean it up.

The algae invasion that took over the lake is slowly but surely clearing away. 

"The algae that was sprayed and the submerged vegetation has already broken down and has dropped out. You can already see a clear line along the bank of open water," BREC spokesperson Amanda Takacs said.

In December, BREC attempted a short-term fix for the algae, releasing sterile carp into the lake.

However, that came with only a limited amount of success. A mild winter slowed their progress, pushing officials to make a different decision. 

"The winter was not cold enough in order to cut the algae back enough, and so now we're spraying with an herbicide to help with other efforts," Takacs said.

The herbicide treatments began a week ago as a last resort solution.
Tuesday, a second treatment was used on a portion of the lake. 

"It'll impact the algae slightly, but what we're mainly going after is this emergent vegetation that's below the surface, because we're trying to decrease that down so it doesn't give the algae something to grow on top of," Takacs said.

It's a short-term solution as dredging is the ultimate fix. That plan is already in the works. 

"The ultimate thing that will fix this lake and will ultimately bring it back to health is the dredging, and that's still taking place, but it's going to be potentially another 10 months or so until that takes place. Right now, we're just trying to do something in the meantime," Takacs said.

These herbicide treatments are scheduled to run through June. BREC says its main focus is on keeping the lake and those around it safe.

"We're treating small areas of the lake at a time in order to make sure we don't end up with a lot of dead vegetation at once that will result in a fish kill."