News

Investment approved for Blue Lake quality: Clearer water, less algae attributed to SolarBees

The Outlook Online
Wed, 04/01/2009
By Shannon Wells

The water quality of Blue Lake may not always live up to its name, but a public-private partnership deal may lock in a level of clarity most residents haven’t seen in decades.

Metro regional government agreed to split the total $150,000 cost of three solar-powered water circulators with a Blue Lake neighborhood group. Metro reached its decision on Thursday, March 6.

Metro officials and residents agreed that the floating “SolarBees,” installed on a trial basis two years ago by their South Dakota-based manufacturer, were effective in enhancing water quality and reducing algae blooms. The Metro Council approved an ordinance to pay $75,000 for its share of the solar-powered apparatuses, which cost $50,000 each.

A 45-year Blue Lake resident, Curtis Knight, testified that the impoundment – which has suffered for decades with algae, excess plant growth and flow-related bacteria problems – looks better now than he’s ever seen it.

“We’ve never had a year as good as last year,” he said. “The SolarBees have really been able to do their thing, and it’s worked out to be very successful. I don’t know anyone out here who wouldn’t agree with me.”

Metro Councilor Rod Park admits his early skepticism of the SolarBees concept gave way to support after what he saw and heard through the past year or so.

“They appear to be working and helping the clarity of the water,” he said, noting that an unintended consequence of that is an increase in weed growth. “We still have high hopes, particularly as we move along with (developing) a nature and golf learning center, with creating a natural (filtration) system.”

Metro is planning an extensive overhaul of Blue Lake Regional Park, including a new event facility to replace the Lake House and a learning-based golf course. Park envisions a system where the course is watered from Blue Lake to create a natural circulation. The lake has an overflow outlet to the Columbia River, but no direct “live” stream flowing into it.

Park said he was pleased by the partnership between Metro and lake residents, which formed a nonprofit entity to collect approximately $1,200 from each homeowner to raise the needed $75,000. Residents’ frustration with Metro regarding the lake’s uses and overall health led to a sometimes-contentious relationship.

“It’s gone from being an adversarial relationship to being a cooperative understanding,” Park said. “We all have a shared interest in having Blue Lake be as best as it can be for everyone’s benefit.”

Park and Knight both credit Interlachen resident Joe Horton for championing the SolarBee concept. Horton helped arrange the experimental trial with the company and promoted their effectiveness to residents and Metro officials.

“They’ve taken a proactive role,” Park said. “Joe Horton led the charge on the SolarBees.”

Knight echoed the councilor’s sentiments regarding his neighbor, while crediting other association members and Teri Dresler of Metro.

“Joe Horton is definitely the man responsible for getting this thing going,” Knight said. “He recognized the need for something to clean up this lake and did his due diligence. He came back and convinced everybody to go along with them.”

Horton acknowledged SolarBees are not the be-all, end-all solution. It will take more than a few circulators to keep the landlocked water healthy in the long run.

“I hope that the use of SolarBees will bring us closer together in looking for other solutions,” he said of residents and Metro.

The lack of live flow conspired with years of lawn fertilizer runoff and chemically based attempts at controlling plants and algae to leave the lake in questionable health for swimmers and boaters. Fertilizer and chemical use has largely been curtailed, Park said.

However, an annual wakeboarding event at Blue Lake Park remained a source of frustration for Horton and fellow lake advocates. The high-powered boats typically stir up and circulate silt and plants that otherwise would have gone undisturbed, he said.

This year, Metro declined to host this year’s Tigé Pro-Am event. It would have been held in August, Park said, when lake plant growth is typically at a peak. Although the cancellation will cost Metro approximately $25,000 in revenue, the council decided it was more important to help the lake as its water quality improves.

“We felt it would be too detrimental to the health of the lake,” Park said.