Oxygen deficits, rates of oxygen depletion, and Secchi disk measurements were the major indices examined in this study to determine trends in trophic conditions in Lakes Mendota, Monona, and Waubesa near Madison, Wisconsin. On the basis of available data, there is little that can be said reliably with respect to documenting eutrophication, particularly in Lake Mendota in the past several decades, that could not be attributed to normal variability. Better evidence for eutrophication comes from cores of some of the lakes.A comparison of oxygen deficits without simultaneous information on mean hypolimnetio temperatures and the lateness of ice out may provide a misleading interpretation of trophic variations over time.