On a warm sunny day in July, Lake Ballinger looks like paradise.
Fishermen drop their lines from a dock at Ballinger Park in Mountlake Terrace.
Children run along the beach.
And, along the western and southern shores of the lake, which is bordered by the cities of Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace, some residents worry.
David Page of Edmonds is one of them.
He’s a member of the Lake Ballinger Community Association, a group of about 50 citizens who live along the lake. Every summer, he swims across the lake to a little island near its center.
Page, a longtime trout fisherman, said he’s seen significant changes in the lake since moving to the area more than 30 years ago. There’s good and bad news about that, he said.
The good news is that the lake is cleaner today than it was 35 years ago, when the state declared it the dirtiest lake in the Puget Sound region.
The bad news? Bass and other trout in the lake are finding it harder to breathe.
Every August, Page said, trout refuse to swim below the 20-foot level because there isn’t enough oxygen to support them.
“The trout want to get down to the cold water but they can’t do it,” he said. The lake, he said, is dying and he’s concerned that thousands of storm drains in the area dump unfiltered fluids directly into the lake.
For Jerry Thorsen, president of the association, pollution is very much a concern, but the biggest problem lately has been flooding.
This past winter, during the storm season, Thorsen had more than 18 inches of water on his lakeside lawn. Four doors down, neighbors saw water pressing against their sliding glass door, he said.
“It affects our pocketbook if you try to sell these places and you have to disclose that twice a year, you can’t use your yard,” Thorsen said.
For at least two years, Thorsen said, he and his fellow lakeside homeowners often felt ignored by the very cities he said should have the greatest interest in Lake Ballinger: Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds, Lynnwood Lake Forest Park and Shoreline.
That’s all changed, Thorsen said, and for the better. Since 2006, representatives of those cities, along with Lake Forest Park, have met quarterly to discuss environmental and drainage issues.
Two studies – one measuring the lake’s hydrology, the other its water quality – are expected to be completed this year.
The $25,000 hydrology study, funded by Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds and Shoreline, is considering whether the lake’s water level could be reduced by dredging McAleer Creek, the only drainage from the lake. That study should be completed in August.
A year-long study, completed this past October by the state Department of Ecology, analyzed water quality.
While complete results from that study won’t be final until this fall, state Department of Ecology biologist Maggie Bell-McKinnon presented preliminary findings to interested parties during a Thursday, June 28 meeting at Mountlake Terrace City Hall.
The study looked at the level of phosphorus in the lake and examined Halls Creek, which brings water into the lake, and McAleer Creek. In 1993, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated Lake Ballinger as one of six Washington lakes the state had to monitor for water quality.
Phosphorus is a nutrient commonly used in fertilizers because plants respond well to it.
Too much phosphorus in a lake, however, can throw the lake’s natural balance out of whack, leading to excessive algae blooms and depleted oxygen levels. Some forms of algae – such as cynobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae – have been linked to human and animal poisonings.
But, Bell-McKinnon said, just because you have an algae bloom doesn’t mean it’s toxic.
These days at Lake Ballinger, algae are blooming year-round, not just at certain times of the year, as in the past, Bell-McKinnon said.
And that’s happening even though her study showed phosphorus levels are within the threshold – 30 micrograms per liter – the state set in 1993.
At the June 28 meeting, representatives from the various cities, and the association, said they support joining forces to look for grant and other funds to hire a consultant to look more closely at lake water quality.
Mike Shaw, Mountlake Terrace’s storm water program manager, asked those in attendance if they’d be interested in seeking money for a consultant to more closely analyze lake water quality and other issues.
He found a willing and supportive audience.
“I would like to look more comprehensively at Lake Ballinger issues, to include water quality,” Shaw said later.
“There’s definitely support from my director and some people on the (city) council, to address some of these things in the watershed,” said Jerry Shuster, Shorelines’ surface water program manager.
Lake Forest Park city administrator David Cline said he’s certain the idea will be on the city’s priority list in the months ahead.
“I hear a resounding ‘yes’ and that’s really why I’m here,” he said.
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