Lake Whatcom water quality still slipping, data shows

Lake Whatcom water quality took a turn for the worse in 2010, adding new urgency to the ongoing effort to head off new sources of pollution while taking steps to cut back on existing ones.

The bad news came in the latest Lake Whatcom Monitoring Program annual report that lists data compiled by Robin Matthews and her team. Matthews is director of the Institute for Watershed Studies at Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University.