Click the link to read the article on The Denver Post website (Elliott Wenzler). Here’s an excerpt:
September 2, 2026
On its surface, Sloan’s Lake is a beautiful oasis that offers a refuge from city life. Part of one of the largest parks in Denver, it features glistening water, mountain views and plenty of paved paths to walk a dog, catch up with a friend or train for a race. But just beneath its gentle waves is a murky, sometimes smelly truth. The [North] Denver lake is slowly filling in with stormwater sludge. The surprisingly shallow water is often quite warm, making it a difficult environment for fish to survive and an easy place for dangerous algae blooms to thrive. If the accumulating muck isn’t addressed soon, the lake is at risk of becoming fully stagnant and bereft of life. On Wednesday, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston stood alongside members of the City Council and advocates for the lake’s future to announce a plan to invest tens of millions of dollars to prevent that from happening.
“A lake that used to be 12 feet deep is in some places only 4 feet deep. It affects the lake’s health. It affects algae blooms. It affects our most beloved events,” Johnston said from the lake’s shore. “We think there’s nothing more important for the long-term health of this neighborhood than to support the long-term health of this lake.”
To raise more money for the cleanup effort, Johnston’s administration will ask the Denver Urban Renewal Authority to add the lake to a nearby urban renewal district south of the park. That would allow it to benefit from money raised through an already-approved tax incentive in the area…The 177-acre lake, which plays host to the annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, is only 3 feet deep on average…Swaths of neighborhoods in Denver, Edgewater, Lakewood and Wheat Ridge drain into the lake, bringing sand, sediment and street crud. Over time, that has built up and begun filling in the bottom of the lake. The cleanup project will include dredging sediment out of the bottom of the lake and disposing of it. Crews will also work on ways to prevent more sediment from building up in the lake. Kurt Weaver, the executive director of the Sloan’s Lake Park Foundation, asked the community to keep advocating for the project throughout the entire construction process to ensure it’s completed.
“To be able to have an opportunity to write a new future for the lake is massive for us, the community around it and everyone who spends time here at the lake,” he said.
