Algae turned this entire Pierce County lake green. The fix won’t be cheap

Bob Perry remembers seeing algae on Palmer Lake before, but never this bad.

“ … this algae is having the effect of coloring the entire lake green,” he said, adding that there were only spots of algae visible in the past.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department issued a toxic algae advisory for Palmer Lake on July 1, warning visitors to avoid areas of the lake with visible algae. It remains in effect as of Tuesday, based on a sample collected last week, an environmental health specialist for the department, Lindsay Tuttle, confirmed.

Tuttle wrote in a statement that the type of algae identified on Palmer Lake is “a potentially toxin producing cyanobacteria.”

The lake’s murky water this summer has sparked discussions among the local homeowners association about what to do to mitigate the algae’s impacts to recreation on the privately-owned lake, which is accessible to about 500 homes.

Perry serves as head of operations and finance for the Palmer Lake Beach Club and lives by the lake. In an interview on Aug. 6, he said the HOA has been looking to improve the health of the lake without burdening residents with the cost of expensive treatments. It hasn’t been easy.

“ … the pricing has become, quite bluntly, really extreme,” he said.

The homeowners own Palmer Lake and are responsible for managing it. The Palmer Lake HOA has historically treated the lake on an annual basis and invested $40,000 into a new lake drainage system in 2020, according to its website. Recently, they’ve seen the costs for treatment skyrocket from $3,000-$4,000 a year to $10,000-$20,000 a year, he told The News Tribune.

“For small HOAs like ours that are very frugal, it is, frankly, a difficult work,” he said.

An update on the HOA website notes that if the association foots the bill for treatment, members’ dues would increase by as much as $35 per year per lot. Perry said the current dues are $230 a year — a significant sum for many of their residents, some of whom are on fixed incomes, he said.

While algae occurs naturally in freshwater bodies and can be helpful for the environment, some types can produce toxins. Cyanobacteria or blue-green algae can make humans or animals sick and prevent wading, swimming, fishing or other activities in lakes. It can look like spilled paint on the surface of the water, streaks or clumps. It’s often green but can be other colors like turquoise, red, yellow, brown or white, the health department website says.

Palmer Lake isn’t the only lake that’s had algae warnings in recent years. Other Pierce County lakes listed with active toxic algae advisories this summer include Silver Lake near Eatonville and Spanaway Lake.

Algae growth in Pierce County lakes and beyond

The health department monitors 11 lakes for toxic algae in Pierce County: Bay Lake, Clear Lake, Harts Lake, Lake Minterwood, Ohop Lake, Palmer Lake, Silver Lake, Spanaway Lake, Tanwax Lake, Lake Tapps and Lake Whitman, the department website says.

Over the 20-plus years that Tuttle, the environmental health specialist, has worked for the county health department, she’s seen the frequency of toxic algae advisories for the county’s lakes rise and fall. Some years are worse, some years are better, she said. She also noted that the monitoring program has adapted over time based on changing scientific guidance from the state Department of Ecology.

At the same time, the health department has only been tracking these tests since 2006, which she said is “still a fairly short time period to really be able to say if there are any trends.”

Scientists generally agree that harmful algal blooms have been increasing in the U.S. and across the world, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website says.

West Bishop is the algae scientist and water quality research manager at EutroPHIX, a private water restoration company that has worked on lakes across the country including in Washington state.

“These harmful algal blooms are expanding in all types of water bodies at all sorts of scales, and it’s truly a global issue,” Bishop said. “… It is an expanding and growing threat to water resources.”

There are a number of reasons for that, Bishop said. A key factor is nutrient pollution, since algae thrive off of nutrients in the water. These nutrients can come from a variety of sources, including wildlife, leaky septic systems and fertilizer runoff, he said.

He listed several other changes in the environment that can also play a role, including intense rain and runoff and rising temperatures.

Solutions to harmful algal blooms

Picking up pet waste, reducing fertilizer use on your property and keeping your septic system in working order are all strategies property owners can take to prevent nutrients from entering lakes in their watershed, said Tuttle, the health department environmental health specialist.

She noted that the health department has rolled out a program notifying septic system owners in parts of Pierce County including the Key Peninsula that their systems require inspection, targeting “sensitive areas in terms of water quality.” The health department website says that all septic system owners in the county will eventually receive those notifications.

Bishop also spoke about the importance of making changes in the larger watershed. But wildlife — such as geese, whose poop contains phosphorus — and “legacy nutrients” that have accumulated in the sediment can be harder to intercept, which is why an effective treatment plan also involves looking at the lake itself, he told The News Tribune.

“Each system is a little different, so we tailor a prescription to the specific need at a site based on the nutrient concentration, based on that legacy accumulation of sediment, the type of cyanobacteria that are present, the uses of the water resource,” he said.

He added that phosphorus is “one of the key underlying factors to cyanobacteria blooms,” and treatment can include targeting that nutrient with a product specially developed to “bind” it and make it into a mineral that the cyanobacteria can’t use to grow.

Who oversees algae treatment on Washington lakes?

Tuttle, the health department environmental health specialist, said that “the Department of Ecology is truly the agency that oversees treatment” in the state. Communities that want to treat their own lake need a permit through Ecology to do so, she said.

The state’s Freshwater Algae Control Program website has more information and resources for managing algae blooms.

The permit is the state’s Aquatic Plant and Algae Management General Permit. Only “licensed pesticide applicators” with an aquatic endorsement can apply for this permit, and state law indicates that the licensing requirements include passing a special exam that covers laws and safety around pesticide use.

Perry, the Palmer Lake HOA employee, said volunteers have tried going through the process of certification because of the high cost of hiring an outside company. The process has proven very difficult, frustrating their efforts: it involves a self-paced curriculum that takes several hundred hours and a “very difficult” exam only administered at select times, he said.

Tuttle acknowledged that it often falls on the homeowners around lakes to develop a lake management plan and implement it through the permitting process. “I know it’s definitely proved a bumpy road,” she said. She said the Department of Ecology staff are good resources to get help.

The Palmer Lake HOA has monthly board meetings, and they’re discussing the situation in-depth, Perry told The News Tribune. He’s not concerned about the toxicity of the lake, but said that residents use the lake for recreation and that the unfamiliar algae they’re seeing has made them “very unhappy.”

“Typically, on our lake this time of year, on a Saturday or Sunday there are 25 or 30 kids swimming in the lake,” Perry said. “We have docks. We have beaches. They love being in the lake. It’s an important community asset.”

There have only been a few swimmers in recent weeks, he said.

The HOA website says the board is looking at several options including increasing the flow of water in the lake, aerating the lake, finding a temporary treatment company and other strategies.

“ … this is not simply something where you wave a wand over and it goes away,” Perry said. “It is a complex ecosystem and environmental issue.”