Position Paper
Dunes City’s Water Quality Committee
for
The DEQ / DHS Harmful Algae
Workgroup
Dunes City is a small coastal municipality without a water system that borders on three connected lakes; Little Woahink, Woahink, and Siltcoos. These three lakes are sources of water for most of Dunes City. The City's Comprehensive Plan policies mandate water quality protection. Volunteers supported by City staff are involved in water testing, training, and keeping the public updated on the status of their drinking water sources.
In October of 2007 Siltcoos Lake suffered a significant blue-green algal (BGA) bloom lasting 52 days. With
a lack of guidance from county and state governments, unfortunate side effects occurred. The City contracted for a sanitary 18-wheeler tanker truck of potable water to be delivered to City Hall for
residents use. Nervous water testers gathered samples for cell counts which ended up costing the City several thousand dollars. These samples were sent to a laboratory in Washington State because labs in Oregon were incapable of doing the tests. For
toxicity analysis, several samples were sent to the University of California at significant cost to the City.
A lack of preparedness was evident in that the bloom was first reported as a paint spill.
Dunes City and its water quality monitoring team expended thousands of dollars on daily monitoring in the naïve hope that the bloom would be gone
in a few days. The City’s lack of a scientific BGA sampling protocol made the severity of the bloom difficult to quantify. DHS issued a Health Advisory
warning. Signs prominently saying the word “toxic” were posted. Local businesses suffered economic losses. Recreation
providers, property owners and others who obtain water from the lake had to change their daily activities. In 2008, Siltcoos suffered another BGA bloom
lasting longer, 93 days, during which staff and volunteers again allocated a great deal of time and resources.
Dr. Allen Milligan of Oregon State University has shown that such blooms are increasing in frequency. BGA
needs four basic ingredients to flourish: nutrients, lack of movement, weeds and heat. Dunes City’s coastal lake conditions of heat and low winds occur in early autumn.
Preventing nutrient loading has been our primary concern. Public education has lessened negative reaction and enabled greater participation in
prevention measures.
Woahink and Siltcoos lakes are the primary drinking water sources for Dunes City residents and Woahink Lake is the only permitted source of water
for Honeyman State Park’s estimated 1.7 million annual visitors. While water testing for quality control purposes is seen as the State’s ultimate
responsibility the City has taken a proactive stance, in adherence with its Comprehensive Plan policies in an effort to mitigate water quality problems.
In spite of several requests, county and state governments did not contribute significantly to local efforts to regularly assess the bloom and keep
residents notified of the current status.
Recommendations Based on the City’s experience are as follows:
1. Statewide protocols must be created and put in place.
2. Direct communication with each public user is required when shutting down a water source. The three lakes in or around
Dunes City include two counties and a federal agency. A means of communicating with everyone requires a cooperative phone, email or direct mail system.
3. DHS must be given funding in order to support local testing and providing alternative emergency water sources. A state laboratory for analyzing samples is suggested.
4. DEQ must be given greater responsibility and authority to reduce the nutrient loading that supports BGA.
5. The public and enterprise groups must be educated to the long-term benefits of sustainable planning using best management practices.
6. Public and private stakeholders who benefit from public resources must be encouraged, if not required, to participate; to share in the efforts of watershed conservation.
7. A state triage-type system must be implemented with the public’s participation for BGA and other events, owing to the
fact that state, county and city agencies are relatively independent of one another.
In Summary Dunes City has demonstrated that county and state efforts can be supported through voluntary effort.
The costs of toxicity analysis are far beyond this City’s financial responsibility. It is hoped that DHS / DEQ will set up handling the analysis
part of the protocol. We applaud such efforts and look forward to hearing of these agencies collaborative progress of water protection.
Attached to this report are Dunes City protocols and other documents established following the 2007 BGA bloom.
Richard Koehler, Chair
PS - Our committee would be pleased to meet with representatives from this group in order to discuss
common solutions to shared problems.
Attached: Algal Bloom Monitoring and Reporting Protocol
CityStaff_Protocol
CityStaff_Protocol_call_list
Observance_List
Full Report and Attachments pdf
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