Exciting times: Moses Lake Watershed Council gets funding for lake progress

MOSES LAKE — The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has granted the Moses Lake Watershed Council $100,000 for Phase 1 of its WaterSMART Cooperative Watershed Management Program to develop a plan to reduce the outbreak of toxic blue-green algae, as well as create an overall balanced system for a healthier lake.

The first round of funding is expected this fall and will be administered accordingly over the course of two years as goals are met, said Grant County Conservation District conservationist Harold Crose.

The Phase 1 funding will cover the development of the plan, which will involve identifying all sources of nutrients that could be detrimental to the lake, whether they come from agriculture, residential areas, septic systems, storm water or other natural sources, Crose said.

Next, the council will develop mitigation strategies, he said, such as shoreline restoration to create natural buffers against potential toxins, as well as others.

Phase 1 will outline strategies, associated costs and timelines. Phase 2 begins the implementation of Phase 1, as well as continuous monitoring for kinks, he said.

Before planning starts in the fall, the first step is to assemble the team to accomplish the work, Crose said. The interview process has been completed and offer letters go out this week.

Another important step is education and outreach, involving the community, he said. The goal is to establish “citizen scientists”: Moses Lake residents aware of the issues and how they can help prevent them.

Next, they must formalize the Moses Lake Watershed Council by establishing bylaws and standardized operation practices, he said. For this, they will use similar councils in Walla Walla and Spokane as models.

This year, Moses Lake is cleaner than it’s been in decades, Crose said. A large part of this is because the Bureau of Reclamation flushed more than 1.5 times the amount of Columbia River water through it. This has been done for decades, but not as much in recent years and algae growth worsened.

Chris Overland, former executive director of the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District, said June 8 the Bureau of Reclamation — which flows water through Moses Lake into Potholes Reservoir and then through canals to farmers and irrigators farther south — sent 122,000 acre-feet of Columbia River water through Moses Lake since the irrigation season began in March through early June. It’s nearly 50,000 acre-feet more than the 77,000 the bureau sent through Moses Lake by this time in 2020, Overland told board members at a regular MLIRD meeting.

While the results are tremendous, that’s not a one-and-done solution, Crose said, but just a single piece. Without water and land treatment and continuous study, the lake won’t form a natural balance with the environment and will be fully dependent on the Columbia River for healthy survival.

Using a number of strategies to be outlined in Phase 1, the lake will be able to protect and maintain itself in an ecologically sound fashion, he said. This will involve establishing the right vegetation, the right wildlife, the right chemistry and ongoing monitoring practices.

“It doesn’t happen overnight. It has to work in conjunction with itself,” he said. “Step one, step two, step three. You don’t just start at step eight and go out and start putting vegetation in that you know won’t work. You got to solve the water quality, the nutrient problem first.”

Without ongoing maintenance, the lake will revert to a marsh, he said. That’s the natural ecology of the area, but it’s not a balance that meets the needs of the community.

The good news is the Watershed Council isn’t completely starting from scratch, he said. Decades of research has been conducted by the University of Washington and other entities on Moses Lake, which, in addition to the Watershed Council’s own studies, will guide their strategies.

“There’s a treasure trove of information on the lake that we’ll just freshen up and bring it into the plan itself,” he said.

For Moses Lake, these are exciting times, Crose said.

This is mainly because three big elements are coming together at once, he said. First, technologies are becoming available to implement the strategies. Second, the council is discovering financial avenues to fund these efforts. Third, community involvement and awareness seems to be at a high point.

Each of these are equally important to make a tangible difference, he said.

“You can have the best plan in the world, but if you can’t implement it, it just sits on the table,” he said.

That doesn’t mean this work is going to be easy, he said. It’s a long road ahead, but the results seen from the influx of river water was a “major success.”

“We have that one piece, right? And it’s a big piece that shows if we do this, it works,” he said. “We know that now. Dilution water. And now we just have to figure out the other pieces and put them into the system.”