By Herb Dayton, Lakewood
It is time once again for the annual announcement that Steilacoom Lake is Toxic. This is a classic example of government incompetence if not tyranny. There is no reason to allow the public to be exposed to these very dangerous toxins. This decision to sacrifice the homeowners and anyone who uses the Lake to the altar of environmental extremism is in my opinion criminal.
The toxins produced can kill your pets. If ingested, it could kill you or at the very least make you very sick. The Pierce County Health Dept. confirms this with their announcement and warnings. What they refuse to say is that this is an easily preventable hazard.
There is a treatment approved by the US EPA that controls the algae and is used in, at last count, 48 or 49 states. In 1989, the Wa. State Dept. of Ecology decided that they would ignore the science and the 50 years of experience using the treatment on Lake Steilacoom and ban its use.
The treatment is Copper Sulfate. Applied according to US EPA instructions, it is the only safe, effective and economical way to prevent toxic algae. The DOE’s decision to ban its use was all about political power and very little about the environment. Science did not support the DOE ban!
This is still true today.
The Pierce County Health Dept., the City of Lakewood and the “Consultants ?” hired to study this algae problem are all vying for millions of dollars in Wa DOE grant money and dare not rock the boat. If you question the tyrants in Olympia on this issue, you face the loss of funds In many different areas. So it is to heck with the citizens we represent we dare not question Olympia. The political calculations were made and the 300+ homeowners on Lake Steilacoom were sacrificed.
Unfortunately, it is not just Lake Steilacoom that is toxic. Many urban lakes in Western Wa. are allowed to become toxic on a regular basis. Waughop and Wapato lakes are two very close to home. There have been tens of millions of dollars wasted on consultants who are paid to give the DOE what they want. The studies typically quantify the problem, state the obvious contributing factors, but never dare suggest a viable or even economical solution. If a consultant dares question DOE orthodoxy, said consultant will have very little or no chance for future work from the DOE. The cycle of wasting our tax dollars continues without results and our lakes continue to be toxic needlessly.
Harry says
Those 300 homes all have to maintain beautiful lawns and that requires lots of fertilizer. Said fertilizer then gets washed into the lake and feeds the algae. Not using fertilizer is pretty much out of question from an economic, real estate value perspective. No one would dream of turning their yard into a more rustic, nature park type of setting. You people made your own bed; now lay in it.
Don Russell says
Harry’s comment is a cheap (and erroneous) shot.
It is not fertilizers applied to lawns by Lake Steilacoom property owners that result in toxic algae blooms in Lake Steilacoom. The cause of toxic algae blooms in Lake Steilacoom is phosphate polluted groundwater entering the lake from Ponce de Leon Creek, Clover Creek and a spring located at the bottom of the southwest cove of the south basin of Lake Steilacoom. The source of the phosphorus in the groundwater is leachate from upgradient on-site septic systems and the practice of infiltrating untreated surface water runoff into dry wells.
There are innovative ways to inactivate the phosphorus entering Lake Steilacoom via groundwater but the Department of Ecology is reluctant to allow their application, as experienced by frustrated Lake Steilacoom shoreline property owners.
PS I am not a Lake Steilacoom property owner.
Herb Dayton says
Lake Steilacoom is the recipient of all the runoff from 89 Sq. Miles of Eastern Pierce County. Everybody that lives in that huge area contributes to the nutrient load to the Lake. The research was done and the Lake Steilacoom residents contribute less than 1% of the nutrient load. Your comment was stupid on so many levels it is a great example of why the problem exists! Ignorance of the science, ignorance of landscaping practices and perhaps the most damning, resentment of success. Go drink your Koolaid!
Chuck says
Unless you can guarantee every single homeowner with property bordering the lake will chip in to pay for these treatments, seems likely to me that as a Pierce County taxpayer I’d be helping foot the bill, even though I live several miles from a lake that has no business being there in the first place (for those who may not know, it was created by damming Chambers Creek about 150 years ago to power some kind of mill, grist or lumber).
And copper sulfate is hardly “harmless”–copper ions are highly toxic to fish. True, a single application, done properly, will not be fatal. But given its history (rotting stumps left underwater when the mill owner logged the land to create the lake, combined with heavy fertilizer run-off from the lawns surrounding the lake), Steilacoom Lake would require many applications over the years to control the problem, and in a case like that, no one can guarantee there will be no long-term environmental damage.
Herb Dayton says
The Lake Steilacoom homeowners have been paying for treatments even when they were not allowed to treat! Those that do not reside on the Lake have never participated in the cost. In fact, Lake residents have been paying to treat the storm water runoff from most of eastern Pierce county. If anything, you are in their debt.
Historically, there were 2 lakes that existed prior to the dam being built. They were joined when the dam was built to create Lake Steilacoom. Additionally the logging was not done in the lakes. It was logged on the higher ground surrounding the Lake and the logs were skidded by oxen teams down to the lake and floated to the mill. There are great pictures, stories and historic lumber surveys in the Pierce county archives recording these activities.
As for copper toxicity, it is toxic to algae. Used inappropriately it can be toxic to fish. It is however, used in fish hatcheries to control gill fungus with no toxicity to fish. As used in the Lake it does not harm the fish and is ultimately bound in the sediments and not available to be toxic to anything.
The fertilizer from the lakeside homes myth has been dealt with scientific studies.
No one can guarantee the future, but is far more likely that long term exposure to toxic blue green algae is a greater threat than occasional use of copper sulfate.
Harriett Thompson Triquart says
I’ve lived on the lake since 1974. It was treated with copper sulphate and diquat for many years and the lake was clean and enjoyed by many. When the DOE stepped in and took control, all reason and science were abandoned and we have today what they created. When every state except WA., uses copper sulphate to treat their lakes with success, you have to wonder what is wrong here. As far as the cost to the taxpayers, that is a farce, as the lake homeowners pay for the treatment and hire experienced, licensed people to treat.
We have never had harm to the fish with the copper sulphate and besides..I prefer the people enjoying the lake rather than the fish.
Herb Dayton says
Just for the record, I moved off the Lake in 2006.
However, it is still painful to me to know that my former neighbors and friends are needlessly exposed to toxins about which we know very little except that they can be lethal to animals and toxic to man at varying degrees. These toxins also can cause fish kills by de-oxygenating the water when there is a toxic bloom. On the other hand, the long and short term risks of copper sulfate have been researched to great lengths and were found by the US EPA to be negligible to non existent when used properly.
My question for the rule makers in Olympia and those in government who fail to question, is:
Who takes responsibility when a child or resident dies from exposure to toxic blue green algae? Posting a sign at the public boat launch absolves no one from responsibility when the alternative is to prevent the toxicity from happening!
My final comment to the Harry and Chucks of the world is your right to have an opinion is balanced by the moral obligation to have the facts correct. I am also thankful that our Declaration of Independence was signed by men who had last names! George, Thomas and John just wouldn’t have meant much without the Washington, Jefferson and Adams that went along with them!
So it goes for Harry and Chuck!