Lawmakers cause a stir at Jordan Lake.

• Position: Triangle

By mixing things up at B. Everett Jordan Darn and Lake, lawmakers are saving buckets of money--at least for now. The reservoir, mostly in Chatham County, has had water-quality issues since it was impounded in 1983, and the then Democrat-led General Assembly approved a plan in 2009 to prevent pollution-causing nutrients from getting into it. That course follows Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, which include building stream buffers and collection ponds. It would cost between $1 billion and $2 billion, according to the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. In August, the now Republican-controlled legislature shelved the Jordan Water Supply Nutrient Strategy for three years in favor of a pilot program. DENR will lease 36 devices from Dickinson, N.D.-based Medora Corp. Called SolarBees, the sun-powered pumps circulate water above the thermocline. The company claims that suppresses blooms of harmful algae--cyanobacteria--but even Medora Director of Science Ken Hudnell can't explain how. (He does have hypotheses.) In Lake Houston in Texas, 20 SolarBees "led to an avoidance of seasonal algal blooms" and saved the city $769,000 a year in treatment costs, according to the...