Nearly 11 years after being treated, the Behlendorfer See near the city of Lübeck in Northern Germany is still reaping the benefits of Phoslock. The 63ha, 15m deep lake, which received a single treatment in 2009, had suffered from nutrient enrichment for many years from its predominantly agricultural catchment. As a result, the lake experienced regular blue-green algal blooms which led to a reduced aquatic plant community. Consequently, the lake was not meeting European legislation for ‘good ecological status’ outlined by the Water Framework Directive (WFD).  Several catchment management measures were initiated to help improve its water quality. However, the impact of years’ worth of nutrients entering the lake had taken its toll and the lake failed to recover due to ongoing release of phosphorus from the lake sediments, a process called internal loading. A Phoslock application of 214 tonnes was applied in in December 2009 to an area of approximately 40ha which was deeper than 7m.

After four years of regular Phoslock applications, Lake Pampulha is showing promising water quality improvements. Lake Pampulha is a tourist hotspot which lies in southeastern Brazil within the urban area of one of Brazil’s largest cities, Belo Horizonte. Since the 1970s, urbanization has led to a decline in its water quality making the system very nutrient-rich. This UNESCO world heritage site has experienced regular cyanobacterial blooms since the 1980s due to nutrients entering the system. The lake was historically used as a water supply reservoir for the City of Belo Horizonte, however the use of the reservoir for potable water supply was stopped some years ago due to the ongoing issues with cyanobacterial blooms.