Lake Rotorua has a nutrient problem. More than 750 tonnes of nitrogen wash into the lake every year, much of it from farm runoff and old septic systems, feeding the kind of algae blooms that turn clear water into green scum, as NIWA's reporting on the Rotorua lakes clean-up describes. Fixing that meant more than just tightening farm rules. In 2012, local authorities tried something unusual: they built an island out of rubbish and let plants do the cleaning.
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