Watershed Plan Is Urged For Newman Lake
FROM VALLEY VOICE page V3 (Thursday, October 30, 1997): Correction The Moab Irrigation District does not have the authority to enforce stormwater control measures in the Newman Lake area, as was stated in an Oct. 9 story in the Valley Voice. To implement such controls, which were recently recommended by two WSU researchers, residents would have to form a new entity specifically for that purpose.
While Liberty Lake has benefited from an aggressive restoration plan, Newman Lake has been left largely unprotected, Washington State University scientist William Funk said.
Newman faces worse pollution and algae growth than Liberty, due to problems associated with logging, road construction and road usage.
In addition, the Newman Lake area is served by septic tanks, which have caused additional nutrient buildup, he said.
Funk has studied the two lakes for three decades.
Building a sewer system at Newman Lake probably isn’t feasible now, Funk said. It would cost millions of dollars, and the federal money that paid 90 percent of Liberty Lake’s sewer construction costs in the 1970s is no longer available, he said.
But the Moab Irrigation District could create and enforce stormwater control measures, similar to those at Liberty Lake, said Funk.
In a final report on stormwater control in the Newman Lake watershed, he and another WSU researcher urged the water district to create an aggressive watershed management plan. That plan could include requirements to prevent runoff during construction projects. It could also require the use of swales, silt fences, straw bales and other runoff prevention measures.
Newman Lake property owners have made some restoration efforts. They’ve spent over $1 million to install an injection system that pumps potassium aluminum sulfate into the lake, reducing phosphorus levels and algae growth.
They also installed an aerator to pump oxygen into the bottom of the lake, another algae inhibitor.
Funk, who stopped monitoring Newman Lake in April, when funding through the Department of Ecology’s Clean Lakes Program dried up, said those treatments have helped, but they’re just a first step.
, DataTimes