Moses Lake Watershed Council chair Harold Crose, left, speaks on Tuesday in the Moses Lake City Council Chamber during the MLWC’s 2022 “State of Our Lake” meeting to outline the blue-green algae problem and some first steps the council expects to undertake next year to see if the phosphorus levels in the lake, which contribute to the algae blooms, can be addressed.
September 21, 2022
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State of the lake
Improving Moses Lake water quality will be a community effort
MOSES LAKE — Preventing future blooms of dangerous blue-green algae in the waters of Moses Lake is going to take a lot of slow and deliberate effort on the part of everyone who lives, works and plays on and around the lake, according to members of the Moses Lake Watershed Council during a “State of Our Lake” meeting Tuesday night. “We will deal with this on the lake forever, but it can be managed and monitored,” Harold Crose, a resource conservationist with the Columbia Basin Conservation District and the chair of the watershed council. Crose said during the public meeting that phosphorus levels in the lake are the main contributor to the problem of blue-green algae blooms in the lake, but the agencies responsible for the lake like the council, the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District, and even lakeshore residents, can help keep phosphorus levels manageable. Doing so can help people keep boating and fishing on the lake...