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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Resort Owner Sues Over Sewage In Lake

A West Medical Lake resort owner is suing the state over sewage spills that temporarily shut down fishing and permanently tarnished the lake’s image.

Ken Lewis says his business was damaged by the 1992 spills, when bacteria levels in the lake rose to 32 times the level considered safe.

The lake was closed for three months, and became the topic of numerous reports by television and print media.

Although there have been no closures since, “public opinion has seriously declined with respect to the quality and safety of West Medical Lake,” Lewis wrote in the suit filed this week.

“The (resort’s) income has steadily declined due to pollution, unhealthy and unsafe conditions caused by discharge of sewage into the lake.”

Contacted at his resort Thursday, Lewis said he couldn’t discuss the suit without checking with his attorney. He didn’t return telephone messages left at the resort Friday.

His suit seeks unspecified damages from the Department of Social and Health Services, which operates two out-of-date treatment plants for Eastern State Hospital, Lakeland Village and other state facilities. It also names the departments of ecology, natural resources, and fish and wildlife.

It was sewage that made West Medical Lake a fishing hot spot in the first place. About 70 percent of the lake water comes from the treatment plants, which were built in the 1950s, said Roger Ray of the Ecology Department’s Spokane office.

Without the plants, biologists say, the lake would be too shallow to support trout.

The 1992 closure was not the first. The lake was closed for two months in 1962, when a Spokane County health official warned, “A person would be taking a very definite risk of getting infectious hepatitis by coming in contact with the water.”

Despite its inglorious origins, the 234-acre lake was a fishing mecca during the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Biologists in the 1960s called it the best trout lake in the state.

Nourished by the nutrient-rich water, rainbow trout that weighed less than one-eighth ounce when stocked grew to a half-pound in a year. Fish that could survive the hordes of anglers grew to several pounds apiece.

The fish-factory reputation stuck through the 1980s. Some 5,000 fishermen - many of them from Western Washington - turned out each opening day.

So many fishermen tried to use the boat launch on opening day 1988, the month before Lewis bought the resort, that one complained it took longer to get on the lake than to catch his limit of seven rainbow trout.

Over the years, some anglers have noted the fish aren’t as tasty as those they caught at other lakes. But it didn’t seem to matter: While other resorts languished, Lewis’ business earned $30,000 a year renting boats and selling M&Ms, worms and other fishing supplies, according to court documents.

But fishing deteriorated after 1991, when opening day fishermen averaged six fish each, according to Wildlife Department surveys. By opening day 1993, the average catch was down to 1.5 fish, and many anglers left with empty creels.

The problem isn’t sewage, biologists say, but drought. Many of the trout planted in 1994 died that summer when the lake level - and its oxygen supply - dropped.

When the water rose, the Wildlife Department put 29,000 trout in the lake. It stocked another 42,000 rainbow trout, plus a few brown trout, before opening day this year.

Still, fishing was slow, with fishermen averaging just one fish apiece. Fishing picked up later in the season, but figures aren’t available, said Madonna Luers, Spokane spokeswoman for the Wildlife Department.

, DataTimes