The Suburban Times

A community bulletin board for Western Pierce County.

Letter: Council should reconsider Waughop Lake plan

By

Submitted by Don Russell.

This is not the only time that I have appealed to you to reevaluate your decision to opt for a $100,000+ alum treatment of Waughop Lake instead of the universally preferred and highly recommended removal of the years of nutrient polluted sediment laid down on the historic bed of Waughop Lake as a result of many years of the Western State Hospital discharging animal waste products into this Lake.  For a number of years since cessation of this activity Pierce County College has been inadvertently discharging human waste into this Lake as a result of failure of its sewage disposal pump out station.

Clearly the Lake has been polluted by State owned institutions and as such the State has an obligation to act to mitigate the sediment polluted condition of this Lake.

This is not what is happening. The City of Lakewood has assumed the obligation to address this situation with  an expensive, short term bandaid solution, that is, an application of alum.  Such an approach will merely delay and make more expensive the proper option of removing not only the State caused nutrient polluted sediment but also the tons of aluminum hydroxide that an alum treatment will add to the eventual sediment removal task.

If the Council’s objective is to restore short term safe beneficial use of Waughop Lake until sediment removal can be executed then I suggest that the City engage either Northwest Aquatic Eco-Systems or Aquatechnex to annually apply light dosage applications of a combination of a herbicide and a phosphorus inactivation product just as being done to control excessive aquatic weed growth and prevent harmful cyanaobacteria blooms in  other nutrient polluted sedimented lakes located within Lakewood city limits.  Such annual treatments would cost approximately one fourth the cost of applying the proposed heavy dosage of alum and would avoid adding tons of aluminum hydroxide to the pollution impaired sediment already in the Lake and be even more effective (in suppressing excessive aquatic weed growth) than a one shot heavy application of alum. 

By opting for this approach Waughop Lake would afford short term safe beneficial use to Park goers while the City pursues the correct long term solution for Waughop Lake’s condition, which is to remove the nutrient polluted sediment laid down on the Lake’s historic bed as a direct result of actions of State owned and operated institutions. 

Comments

  1. Excellent, you obviously have done research! I hope you have actually sent this to the city council, mayor and others.

  2. Good job Don! Doing the right thing when the State or Federal boy’s has made a mess of things gets real sticky as you well know. Once they start any clean up it’s cradle to grave with name’s attached. Old military bases in every parts of the USA and the world are full of pollution of ungodly toxins. Worst polluters are the ones in charge, look at Hanford in Tri-cities, a mess. The only way the State will stand up and do this right is for some very rich company to step forward and provide funding for a Big Tax right off! This is many millions of dollars worth of cleaning. Trucks, proper transport and where do you dump this stuff? Your very right, kick the can down the road and make this go away till next year. Now if this was our own lake guess what the State or Federal boy’s would be doing to us tax payer’s! Making us clean up this big mud puddle the Right Way under there watchful eye with daily fines for not moving fast enough! Good Job Don, lead the way, look for a company that needs a good tax rightoff!!

  3. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this solution has been brought up to the city council before and ignored…like too many other citizen-raised concerns and concomitant solutions.

    It’s obvious that your method results in less money spent; a more-effective, environmentally responsible outcome; and something that will drive this problem to a conclusive dissolution.

    So….why is the city so much against doing this? I am no conspiracy theorist…I work on facts, and this circumstance smacks of quid pro quo activities.

    So, Mr Russell, what can we do as citizens to fix this God-awful, crazy mess?

  4. My guess is that the city’s decision is a triumph of short term thinking. Sometimes this is called “kicking the can down the road.” Whatever you call it, it’s just easier for decision-makers not to make the hard decisions now with their attendant higher up-front costs and need for some sacrifice in favor of believing that the problem will disappear or at least will be taken care of eventually by someone else. Sounds a lot like the approach to climate change, the national debt, health care reform, immigration reform, the Social Security Trust fund threat and . . . . Does anyone see a pattern here?

  5. Mr. Russell’s comments and suggested alternatives deserve serious consideration as an alternative to alum treatment for Waughop Lake.

    Ken Karch, PE, MSE, MPH
    former Executive Director, Iowa Department of Environmental Quality
    former Director, Missouri Division of Environmental Quality

  6. Lakewood City Council, please listen to Mr. Russell and other city residents who see the value of this solution to both the lake and the community. It is better to do it right the first time and get the long term benefit!

  9. Look’s like Don and Ken have the knowledge to tackle the Council with some hefty knowledge and a better path. Concerned citizens that have the right path, been there and really done that could make the difference in this clean up. You really are the only two men here that could educate the council in doing this right if they wish to listen. So gentlemen start your engines and do a burn out in there office with your idea, if they choose to ignore good advice shame on them, then there bad decision follows them forever! Good article Don, I grew up in Steilacoom, we called the lake death lake, because of the slaughter house and it’s smell, it was terrible on a hot day. I would be happy to know someday that it was cleaned up right, and two men that have the right stuff walked in to the council chamber’s and told them a better path await’s this dirty lake!!!

  10. All comments are appreciated, but I trust you will read the “rest of the story” and response prepared by our Public Works Director, as well as the reports prepared for the City on this issue. It should be posted in the Suburban Times shortly for you to review. Suffice it to say, these decisions are never made in a vacuum or without public input, including that from Mr. Russell and others. Removal of the bottom sediments through hydraulic dredging is simply not a viable option (in terms of massive expense–in the millions–and impact to the park and park users) when compared with the alternative of alum treatment.