Monitoring Water Quality in Flathead Lake
Excerpts from a Flathead Lakers Monitoring Funding White Paper from November, 1998:Problem. 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. are contributing funds. The state DEQ says its contribution will be reduced in future years, and Montana Power Co. is selling its dams. With shortfalls in funding for the past several years, the Flathead Lake Biological Station has made up the balance to allow monitoring to continue. Biological Station funds are no longer available for that purpose. Description of the Monitoring Program. The current monitoring program on Flathead Lake involves sampling and protocol described in the Flathead Basin Commission (FBC) 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. Sampling sites include Flathead Lake at Midlake Deep, Stillwater River in Evergreen, Ashley Creek below the Kalispell Sewage Treatment Plant, Stoner Creek in lakeside, the South Fork of the Flathead River at the USGS Gauge, Flathead River at Holt, Swan River at Bigfork, Bulk Precipitation at the Biological Station, and the Flathead River at Polson. 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 [the high runoff months of] 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). Cost of Monitoring. The cost of monitoring Flathead Lake and its tributaries is now approximately $80,000 per year. The Flathead Lake Biological Station currently conducts the monitoring program, which is coordinated by the FBC. In conducting the monitoring program, the Biological Station: - Does not recover 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 FBC's volunteer monitoring program at no charge.
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The University of Montana has never charged the monitoring funding consortium overhead on the Flathead monitoring program. 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). Top of Page. | 
