LAKE DELTON, WIS. -- People were starting to complain that this artificial lake was looking more and more like pea soup. Not anymore.

The Lake Delton village board voted to "inject" 500 gallons of dye in the famous lake that hosts the Tommy Bartlett Water Ski show, a 60-year-old institution in the Wisconsin Dells. The move is said to be harmless, unless you're a local taxpayer. They're on the hook for more than $29,000.

The 267-acre lake last made headlines when a 2008 flood left it drained and empty when it overflowed and broke through a earthen barrier, damaging several homes.

Tom Diehl, general manager of the water ski show and village board member, told the Wisconsn State Journal that resort owners and visitors were complaining about the pea-green color of the water this summer. Enter the liquid dye "AquaBlue" -- which should keep it a pleasing blue through August, according to a spokesman for the LaCrosse company that did the dying.

The dye job has some people seeing red, not blue. The River Alliance of Wisconsin called it an "expensive, temporary and downright foolish 'fix' that won't clean up Lake Delton in the long run."