During the past year, the Flathead Lakers worked to help make sure water quality monitoring in Flathead Lake and its tributaries continues. More than two decades of monitoring by the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station has shown where water quality has been and points to where it is going. The latest monitoring results show that water quality is going down. Local governments had been sources of funding for water quality monitoring, and those sources have dried up. An aroused public can see to it that funding is provided. The Flathead Lakers believe everyone benefits from keeping our waters clean. Clean water contributes to our economy and quality of life. We have a right to know how clean our water is - and an obligation to keep it clean or, when necessary, clean it up. The Flathead Lakers sought donations from its members and other citizens to help make up the shortfall in monitoring funding and buy some time to find ways to ensure reliable long-term funding. We were able to raise nearly $13,000. This effort was a one-time response to the funding crisis, not a substitute for commitment from local governments. The board of directors and I appreciate the support our members, the general public, and other organizations (Trout Unlimited, Polson Outdoors, Polson Community Development Corp., and Lake County Community Development Corp., all contributed toward matching the $5,000 Montana Power Company's pledge) have shown for continued monitoring. We've just learned that the legislature has approved $50,000 in funding for the Flathead Lake monitoring program for each of the next two years. Speaker of the House John Mercer from Polson deserves our thanks for initiating this appropriation. With this new funding, water quality monitoring has been dealt a reprieve. But that doesn't mean we can relax. Those who believe water quality monitoring is essential must use this opportunity to put into place a strategy for funding the program into the future. All experience with pollution shows that cleaning up after pollution occurs is vastly more difficult and expensive than keeping our water and air clean in the first place. One stitch time is now. -- Robin Steinkraus
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8 August 1998, by Michael Jamison of the Missoulian
Monitoring of the jewel of Montana is slipping as funding dries up YELLOW BAY - Sometimes, politics can be thicker than water, although the water's getting thicker all the time. That's the word from Jack Stanford, who for the past two decades has been monitoring pollution levels as director of the 99-year-old Flathead Lake Biological Station at Yellow Bay. As Flathead Lake pollution levels continue to increase, he said, funds for monitoring programs continue to shrink, with counties and other agencies pulling out of the system. Last year, Flathead County stopped paying into the monitoring program, and county commissioners there ordered the health department to take back its monitoring contribution. Lake County has also pulled out, as have the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Even the federal government, which once provided monitoring funds through the Clean Lakes Program, has quit paying. That program, although touted as a commitment to water quality, has not been fully funded in recent years. "Congress says water quality is important, but they don't fund their own programs," said a frustrated Stanford. "It's the same old political doublespeak." In all, Stanford said, the $85,000-per-year Flathead Lake monitoring program has dried up to about $40,000. "The county commissioners in both counties just don't care about the water quality of this lake," Stanford said. "I'm tired of going to them. They know what needs to be done, but they just don't want to do it. Instead, they create committees and talk about it. I just do not believe the current slate of county commissioners care about water quality, which is very odd considering the economic importance of this lake to county tax rolls. "At this rate," he continued, "the future of the monitoring program is going to be very quickly no future." Throughout recent history, the counties and tribes each contributed about $5,000 annually to monitoring. In Flathead County, that works out to about 7 cents per resident per year to track water quality in the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. The lake is also one of the region's biggest economic drawing cards, and Stanford argues that politicians are jeopardizing the entire community by refusing to fund pollution surveys. Flathead County Commissioner Dale Williams says Stanford's complaints are just sour grapes over lost funding, and refuses to debate his level of interest in water quality issues. Williams has come under fire from groups such as Citizens for a Better Flathead for a stance they see as opposed to responsible water quality policy. "That's his (Stanford's) opinion and he's welcome to it," said the Republican commissioner. "As long as we give him money, he's satisfied, and that's what it comes down to." Stanford, however, said he does not care who gets the money, so long as water quality monitoring continues. In fact, in recent years, Stanford has used his own professorship funds to plug the funding gaps. "But I won't be able to augment the monitoring program much longer," he said. "I'm going to have to turn that source of money off, despite the importance of continued monitoring." The monitoring, Stanford said, is crucial to assessing the current state of the lake and comparing today's findings to past data to help project the future. Taken as a whole, he said, long-term monitoring is the only program that will provide accurate trend information about the health of the lake. Flathead Lake, while considered clean for a lake its size, was recognized as "impaired" by the state back in the mid-1980s. Things have worsened since then, with more and more lake activity. Of special concern are Jet Skis and other craft that run on two-cycle engines. According to Stanford, two-cycle engines leave 25 to 35 percent of their fuel in the water. But the main pollution problem, biologists agree, is primarily caused by flows of nutrients - nitrogen and phosphorus - that work like industrial-strength plant food. As human-caused nutrient loads flush into the lake, algae blooms in profusion, choking the lake in green, murky water and a rotten smell. Stanford, who began intensive monitoring in 1977, says the rapid deterioration of water quality has slowed thanks to aggressive steps in upstream communities, but a slower decline continues. Based on his data, the towns of Lakeside, Bigfork, Columbia Falls, Whitefish and Kalispell all upgraded their sewage treatment plants in recent years. Following those upgrades, monitoring showed a 15 percent drop in total nutrient load. That is just one example, Stanford said, of a case where monitoring identified a problem, inspired action, and proved the efficacy of the solution. The steps taken so far, he said, have kept Flathead Lake one of the cleanest large freshwater waters in the world. "Almost all lakes worldwide are no longer clear and no longer smell good because of human nutrient inflows," he said. "By my standards, Flathead Lake's in pretty darn good shape." That is not to say, however, that it will stay that way. A look at other big lakes - and a look at Stanford's monitoring data - indicates the lake will deteriorate quickly without careful attention. "We need to know, quantitatively, what's going on out there; what are the effects of our actions? You can't be honest about this without good numbers. You can't manage the water in any meaningful sense without a quantitative analysis." He would like to monitor the effects of septic tanks, of which there are more than 35,000 in Flathead County, half of them over 20 years old. Stanford also calls for monitoring street runoff, erosion from timber harvest, agricultural runoff, and erosion from grazing and other activities, compiling numbers on the amount of nutrient flush caused by each. But without the funding support of local governments, he said, those numbers will be hard to come by. "We have enough data now that we do know a few things," he said. "We know Ashley Creek is more polluted than the water coming out of the Kalispell sewage treatment plant. We know septics and street runoff are making their way into the system. We know some farmers are fertilizing our streams as well as their fields." Simple buffer strips between fields and streams, he said, could reduce fertilizer flows by 80 percent. That would save both water quality and dollars, as farmers would keep more fertilizer where it belongs. "Why send the fertilizer into the stream?" he asked. "It's just common sense that it's not doing anyone any good in the water. They might as well just back a wheelbarrow full of money up to the creek and dump it in." Much of Stanford's monitoring research has been used by the Flathead Basin Commission, a quasi-governmental agency charged with drafting local solutions to Flathead water quality issues. Williams, the Flathead County commissioner, sits on that commission, and recently helped to create new pollution standards for Flathead Lake. But by pulling the monitoring funding, Stanford said, Williams has hamstrung his commission's own agenda. How can you know whether your standards are accurate - or being met - if you don't monitor, Stanford asked. "The Basin Commission is going to need some routine information," he said, "and I'll be hard pressed to provide that information without funding." Williams, however, isn't worried. He has proposed creation of a countywide water quality district, and has no intention of returning monitoring funds to previous levels. "Those funds will be reinstated as fast as Lake County reinstates theirs, and I don't think that's going to happen," Williams said. Williams agrees that some monitoring might be useful, however he is banking on new technologies to clean up any future pollution. Cleanup rather than prevention is inherent to his approach. "Technology is the fix," he said. When asked what technology he recommends, Williams said, "probably something that isn't even invented yet." Stanford, however, is not willing to wait until things are more polluted, and, most likely, more expensive. "They (the commissioners) can wait and wait and talk and talk until their lake is so far gone that it will cost millions to reclaim," Stanford said. "An $80,000 monitoring budget will seem like peanuts if we let this go. Just look at Lake Tahoe. Their cleanup budget is $30 (million) to $40 million a year. "Flathead Lake is on a threshold," he continued. "The algae will take off at the slightest push, and overnight this lake won't look like the same lake." Both the counties and the tribes are currently involved in drafting annual budgets, none of which include monitoring contributions. Copyright 1998, the Missoulian, all rights reserved worldwide.
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14 August 1998, by Michael Jamison of the Missoulian YELLOW BAY - Finding the funding to monitor the quality of Flathead Basin waters has become top priority for a local grass-roots organization. In recent years, counties and other government agencies have eliminated their contributions toward monitoring of Flathead Lake waters. The lake, which is the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes, is listed as "impaired" by the state, with huge algae blooms resulting from upstream pollutants. Continued water quality monitoring, many say, is the only way to protect the lake for future generations. But with a $40,000 shortfall in the $80,000 monitoring budget, researchers at the Flathead Lake Biological Station at Yellow Bay are facing substantial cuts in their long-term monitoring program. That program, initiated by station director Jack Stanford, dates back more than 20 years, and includes continually updated information about the lake and the streams flowing into it. To fill the funding gap created by the counties' cuts and maintain continued monitoring, the Flathead Lakers are looking for private contributions that will, for this year, replace missing public dollars. The Flathead Lakers is a nonprofit conservation organization that has worked to protect water quality in Flathead Lake and its tributaries since 1958. "People I've talked to are willing to do it out of their own pockets for this year, but they won't do it that way forever," said Rich Schleicher, a Flathead Lakers board member. "Eventually, they want some sort of guarantee that we'll work with the counties and get the historic funding back." Flathead and Lake counties traditionally have contributed about $5,000 annually toward monitoring, as have the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. In addition, to cutting off those funds, Flathead County commissioners killed a nearly $7,000 contribution made by the county Health Department. Schleicher, after reading a recent Missoulian article highlighting the monitoring shortfalls, began a drive for stopgap funds. So far, he said, he has drummed up about $8,000 in pledges, including promised donations from prominent Flathead residents including well-known actor John Lithgow. Schleicher hopes the Lakers can provide matching funds. Lakers executive director Robin Steinkraus said copies of that newspaper article were included in the organization's newsletter, along with a call for contributions toward the matching fund coffers. She also is planning meetings with Flathead and Lake County commissioners, hoping that the private effort will prove to politicians the importance that area residents place on water quality. "The lake is a huge part of the area's economy," she said. "I just hope this has some influence on the county commissioners, because as a nonprofit, paying for monitoring is not a role we can play for the long term. It has been and should continue to be the role of local counties." Schleicher hopes scientists studying the lake will be able to get by with the $12,000 to $16,000 he hopes to raise in the private sector, despite the overall $40,000 budget shortfall. According to Steinkraus, the monitoring budget has been considerably below that $80,000 target for several years. However, work has continued by shuffling other budgetary priorities. "We'll do this on our own," Schleicher said. "If the counties won't acknowledge their responsibilities, we'll do it with private dollars and prove to them that the citizens want a clean lake." Copyright 1998, the Missoulian, all rights reserved worldwide.
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By Michael Jamison of the Missoulian
Group urges Flathead Lake test KALISPELL - Testing the waters will be the key to preserving the quality of Flathead Lake, but doing so will cost money, a local group said Wednesday. The Flathead Lakers has issued a letter to the Flathead Basin Commission, urging the commission to find the funds necessary to continue water quality monitoring throughout the Flathead. The Lakers are ''concerned about the serious funding problem for continued water quality monitoring in Flathead Lake and it's tributaries,'' the letter read. Calling the monitoring efforts ''the Basin Commission's most important function,'' the local group offered to help secure long-term funding. The commission, which met Wednesday in Kalispell, was charged by the state Legislature in 1983 to protect the region's water quality. Recently, however, that charge has become increasingly difficult to fulfill, as funding has trickled away, leaving some monitoring projects high and dry. Last summer, Flathead County commissioners opted to withhold their annual $5,000 contribution toward monitoring. More recently, those same elected officials nixed a $6,800 annual contribution made by the County Health Department. Meanwhile, contributions by other agencies have also dropped considerably, with the Forest Service cutting back its monitoring support by half. Many on the Basin Commission were dismayed by those decisions, pointing out that Flathead County is the prime source of pollutants flowing into Flathead Lake. That lake has been listed as impaired, largely due to massive inflows of nutrients. Locating the nutrients, scientists say, requires regular water sampling at a number of locations. Having pinpointed several ''point sources'' of pollution, the commission has established guidelines for the ''total maximum daily load,'' or TMDL, of any given pollutant. Next, it is the commission's job to address ''non-point source'' pollution. A presentation Wednesday by Bonnie Ellis of the University of Montana's Biological Station showed how monitoring can help find those non-point sources. Using monitoring maps to illustrate her research, Ellis showed commission members the areas of the worst shoreline pollution. Big Arm Bay on the west shore and the stretch between Wood's Bay and Yellow Bay on the east shore appeared to have the greatest concentrations of pollutants - as well as the greatest concentration of homes. The septic systems at those homes, she said, played a major role in localized pollution. Add to that the roads, lawns and clearings that go along with residential development, she said, and you begin to see why certain areas are worse off than others. The key to fixing those problems, she said, lies ultimately in monitoring. Through monitoring, you can produce maps. Through maps, you can begin to educate lakeside residents. And through education, she said, you can begin to make a difference. Learning how to live on the lake, she said, is mostly a matter of knowing what not to do. When developed properly, lakeshore homes can work. When developed poorly, however, they can contribute to massive fish kills, swimmer's itch, algal blooms and unsafe drinking water. The same goes for development away from the shore, she said. Ellis' monitoring maps charted the pollutants coming from city street drains, industrial operations and agricultural lands. Knowing where the hot spots are, she said, can lead to a plan for cleaning up the worst of the worst. The commission, working with an ever-shrinking monitoring budget, will be looking for the biggest bang for the buck in coming months. A technical monitoring committee is currently setting testing priorities, and hopes to monitor TMDL progress by continued water quality monitoring. Copyright 1998, the Missoulian, all rights reserved worldwide.
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