Opinion - Top opinion

POSTED: Tuesday, Aug. 04, 2009

Water restrictions a bad sign for Lake Whatcom

We encourage all Bellingham residents, and any in the county who get their water from Bellingham, to avoid watering their lawns and gardens until the city lifts watering restrictions it put in place Thursday, July 30.

We know not watering will be difficult for people who spend much of their time and money on their landscaping. People in Bellingham, for the most part, do a wonderful job of creating wonderful gardens that brighten all of the city's neighborhoods. Some even grow their own produce.

Given that aesthetic it will surely be hard not to water until the ban is lifted. But the restriction is necessary. And we suggest all good citizens will restrict their water use voluntarily. Don't make city officials have to warn you or threaten to turn off your water. Just restrict yourself knowing it is the right thing to do.

Unfortunately, the problem that forced the city to put the restriction in place is not going to go away.

The restrictions are due to abnormally high levels of algae in Lake Whatcom. The algae is clogging filters at the water treatment plant, making it harder to provide enough water for the increased summertime demand.

Lake Whatcom is going to be home to more and more algae blooms in future years because citizens and our elected officials have not done nearly enough to protect and preserve the lake.

Scientists have been warning that large algae blooms are likely to increase in number and frequency in the coming years as the lake gets more and more loaded with nutrients and phosphorus, problems exacerbated by continuing land-clearing and development around the lake.

The lake is listed as an "impaired waterbody" by federal officials due to overloads of phosphorous that are feeding the algae and choke out oxygen. In response to the federal listing, state officials have demanded local governments take actions to roll back pollution problems in the lake.

Big algae blooms in a lake are an ecological issue, limiting where fish and other species can survive. But the blooms are a bigger problem for water treatment.

Today, officials say that no algae is getting through their treatment, just clogging up their filters. But if the situation in Lake Whatcom is not reversed, citizens of this community are going to be forced to spend millions of dollars, if not tens of millions, to buy newer and better filtering equipment and chemicals in order to preserve the quality of our drinking water. No one wants to drink water full of unpleasant smelling and tasting algae.

The better, cheaper solution, is for our governments to completely restrict development in the watershed and to spend the money necessary to retrofit areas around the lake with better systems to stop pollution from entering the lake.

Unfortunately, our political leaders appear to be unable to make the drastic changes necessary. Many of them will point to minor projects here and there as they have started to make changes. But it has clearly not been enough, fast enough.

And too many people try to distract from the real issues by pulling in tangents about the Nooksack River or other issues while they try to protect their interests that harm the lake. Talk of increasing diversions to the lake from the river are unrealistic in a time when salmon in the river are listed as endangered species. And the idea that flushing will solve the lake's problems is incorrect. Diluting the water and "flushing" the lake only masks the problem temporarily, it does not stop the increasing phosphorous loading in the lake.

If we cannot get some real leadership and some real movement on stopping the degradation of Lake Whatcom soon, this week's call for water restrictions because of a lot of algae clogging the system is going to become a regular event.