Flathead Lake & Basin Water Quality Monitoring Program
Program and Funding Summary
Flathead Lakers • 12 September 2002
Flathead Lake is a local and state treasure. Surveys have shown that the public believes protecting water quality should be a top priority in the Flathead. But water quality in Flathead Lake has declined and continues to be threatened: - The state has declared water quality in Flathead Lake impaired.
| - Biological Station researchers report a 30% decline in water quality over the past 25 years.
| - Two major pollution algae blooms have occurred in the lake.
| - Lower than normal levels of oxygen have been found in Big Arm Bay.
| - Long-time residents are noticing more algae on shoreline rocks.
| - A health advisory was issued for the mercury levels in Flathead Lake lake trout. Note. Bacteria can convert inorganic mercury into the more harmful methylmercury. The activity and abundance of bacteria increase with increasing nutrient loads.
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Water quality monitoring tells us how clean Flathead Lake is. The quality of Flathead Lake is a barometer of the condition of the watershed. Monitoring provides the information needed to control or fix problems as they develop, rather than waiting until they become severe. Restoration is always significantly more expensive than keeping our waters clean. The cost of monitoring water quality in Flathead Lake and its tributaries is minimal compared to the $30 million the federal government committed to clean up Lake Tahoe and the $14 million the city of Missoula must spend to reduce nutrient pollution in the Clark Fork River. | - The highest property taxes are on lakeshore property.
| - Nonresidents pay lakeshore property taxes.
| - Tourists and other summer visitors spend money in our communities.
| - The lake is a drawing card for economic development.
| - The Montana Dept. of Fish, Wildife & Parks estimates that the Flathead. Lake and River system annually add $16 million to the local economy.
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Monitoring provides the information managers need to manage water quality and fish. Without monitoring, we cannot identfy problems that could affect our health, fisheries, recreation, tourism and property values. For example, in response to monitoring information, Flathead communities upgraded their sewage treatment plants and banned phosphate-containing detergents. Flathead Lake is at the receiving end of all the pollution from the upstream watershed. We need to oversee water quality to be able to influence activity upstream (for example, coal mining in Canada). Monitoring helps us evaluate the effectiveness of “best management practices” put into use to protect water quality. Monitoring Flathead Lake has provided one of the longest records of lake quality information in the nation. Only such a continuous, long-term record can detect gradual changes. While nationally our dirtiest waters have been getting attention and are being cleaned up, our cleanest waters have deteriorated. Flathead Lake is an example of this trend. It will be clean, healthy and beautiful only as long as the people who live here are vigilant.
Funding for water quality monitoring in Flathead Lake and its tributaries has declined in recent years. Lake County, Flathead County, and the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes no longer contribute funds through the monitoring consortium to the Flathead Basin Commission for monitoring. In 1998, only the state Department of Environmental Quality and Montana Power Co. contributed funds. With shortfalls in funding for several years, the Flathead Lake Biological Station made up the balance to allow monitoring to continue. Biological Station Director Dr. Jack Stanford informed the Flathead Lakers in 1998 that Biological Station funds were no longer available for that purpose. | 1999:
Bureau of Reclamation - $6,213
Montana Power Company - $10,000
Flathead Lakers - $2,000
MT Water Quality Division (from EPA) - $30,000 2000:
MT DNRC - $50,000
Bureau of Reclamation - $6,289
MT DEQ (from EPA) - $30,000 2001: MT DNRC - $50,000
Bureau of Reclamation - $7,500
MT DEQ (from EPA) - $30,000
2002 MT DEQ (from EPA) - $30,000
MT DEQ (pending per J. Sensibaugh) - $50,000
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The Flathead Lakers raised private donations to support the program in 1998 and made a donation to the Biological Station’s endowment for monitoring in 2001. The Biological Station established an endowment to help fund the monitoring program. Although a number of donations to the endowment have been received by the Biological Station, it currently provides minimal income for monitoring expenses. Monitoring sites and parameters were reduced in 2001 due to the funding shortfall. For several years the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes provided in-kind support by conducting the field sampling at the Flathead River at Polson. The Tribes are not currently supporting the program. At the Flathead Lakers annual meeting last June, Department of Environmental Quality Director Jan Sensibaugh announced in her keynote address that DEQ will provide additional funding for monitoring this year. In addition, she committed to including $100,000 in her department's biennial budget for future years.
The current monitoring program on Flathead Lake involves sampling and protocol described in the Flathead Basin Commission Master Plan for Water Quality Monitoring in the Flathead River Basin (1986). The plan was developed by the commission’s monitoring technical committee, composed of scientists and managers representing federal, state, and local agencies operating in the Flathead Basin. | | - Flathead Lake at Midlake Deep
| - Stillwater River in Evergreen
| - Ashley Creek below the Kalispell Sewage Plant
| - South Fork of the Flathead River at the USGS Gauge
| | | - Bulk Precipitation at the Biological Station
| | - Ross Deep (in Big Arm Bay)
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Monitoring parameters include nitrate+nitrite, ammonium, total nitrogen, turbidity, alkalinity, pH, soluable reactive phosphate, soluble phosphate, total phossphate, dissolved organic carbon, non-dissolved organic carbon, dissolved inorganic carbon, sulfate, silicate, chlorophyll a, primary productivity, conductivity, secchi depth and temperature. The Master Plan calls for all lake and tributary sites to be sampled once per month from July through March and twice per month in April, May and June (i.e., a total of 15 times for a full water year). Due to funding limitations, sampling has been limited to 12 times per year for most years since 1992 and all dissolved metals analyses were eliminated. Bulk precipitation is sampled after every major precipitation event (about 30 times per year). Due to reduced funding, monitoring in most of the 2002 water year (begining October 1) was limited to sampling the Midlake Deep site for all parameters, the Ross Deep site for oxygen profiling and Bulk Precipitation for only total nitrogen and total phosphorus. The data from these samples describe the response of the lake to nutrient loading and the amount of nutrient input from precipitation only.
The cost of monitoring Flathead Lake and its tributaries is now approximately $87,500 per year. The Flathead Lake Biological Station conducts the monitoring program, which has been coordinated by the Flathead Basin Commission. In conducting the monitoring program, the Biological Station: - Has not recovered the cost of replacing equipment;
| - Analyzes water quality samples at cost;
| - Archives the monitoring data at no cost;
| - Spends about 20 hours in lab work and analysis for every hour spent gathering samples;
| - Trains volunteers in the Basin Commission's volunteer monitoring program at no charge.
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| | | | | | Note. The chemical analysis costs are seperate from the monitoring salaries and supplies. Chemical analysis expenses include salary, benefits, equipment maintenance and reagents. |
Biological Station personnel who collect and analyze samples have years of experience. They are efficient and their salaries are low. Biological Station personnel have the training and background necessary to interpret the data gathered. The Biological Station has a well-equipped lab (supplied through grant-funded projects).
In1998, the Flathead Lakers solicited funds from members and other citizens to cover the shortfall in monitoring funding for that year. A total of $12,700 was raised. Lakers board members and the executive director also met with the Lake County Commissioners, Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes Environmental Sciences Division Program Manager, and Flathead Lake Biological Station Director Dr. Stanford to discuss concerns and opportunities for supporting the monitoring program. The Flathead Lakers encouraged local legislators to support funding for the monitoring program during the 1999 and 2001 legislative sessions as well as in prior years. Percentage of the Biological Station's Total Budget The Flathead Lake Biological Station's total budget for 2001 was $1,875,637. Funding for the Flathead monitoring program was 4.7 percent of the total budget. The State of Montana funds a portion of the Biological Station's budget other than monitoring. In 2001, total state funding was $390,954 which accounted for 17% of the total budget.
Information provided by Scott Relyea, Research Coordinator, Flathead Lake Biological Station.
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