[T]he recently released 2015 State of the Lake and Ecosystem Indicators Report shows Lake Champlain’s water quality continues to be a “cause for concern.”
The report released last week at a Grand Isle news conference, finds that phosphorus levels in the lake since 1990 have continued to increase and, while small improvements have been made, they have yet to make a significant impact on the overall status of the lake.
The State of the Lake Report is released every three years by the Lake Champlain Basin Program, as required under the Lake Champlain Special Designation Act of 1990. The program works with the government agencies of New York, Vermont and Québec, private organizations, local communities, and volunteers to protect and improve the Lake Champlain Basin’s water quality, fisheries, wetlands, wildlife, recreation and resources.
But in the past 25 years since the program was established, pollution levels in Lake Champlain have only gotten worse.
“Phosphorus concentrations have not decreased significantly in any areas of Lake Champlain, despite reductions in the amount of phosphorus entering the Lake from several of its tributaries,” the authors of the report wrote. “Long-term trends since 1990 indicate that phosphorus concentrations in several segments continue to increase.”
High concentrations of phosphorus combined with warm temperatures may lead to harmful algae blooms which can produce dangerous toxins.
In 2014, the main lake, which makes up about 65 percent of the lake’s total volume, has a target phosphorous level of 10 micrograms per liter. Actual levels measured last year were 15 micrograms per liter.
Missisquoi Bay phosphorous levels were 60 micrograms per liter last year; the target level is 25 micrograms per liter.
Phosphorus comes from manure and fertilizer from fields, sewage spills and overflows from wastewater treatment facilities and streambank sediments. Agricultural runoff makes up 38 percent of Lake Champlain’s phosphorus levels, according to the report.
Recent research has shown that nitrogen also causes harmful algae blooms. Eric Howe, technical coordinator at the Lake Champlain Basin Program, said that the research is too new to be addressed as much in the report, but they have found that phosphorus is what produces the blooms, while nitrogen is what produces the dangerous toxins that make the blooms harmful.
Mike Winslow, staff scientist at the Lake Champlain Committee said that the nitrogen is mentioned in the report, but it just doesn’t get as much attention as phosphorus.
“We don’t have the legal framework around nitrogen that we do around phosphorus yet,” Winslow said.
The same efforts used to reduce phosphorus levels in the lake also reduce nitrogen, Howe said.
THE EFFECTS OF ALGAE BLOOMS ON THE PUBLIC
Some lakes, particularly Lake Erie as in the recent Toledo, Ohio, drinking water crisis, have had issues with harmful algal blooms affecting drinking water. This is not the case with Lake Champlain.
Lake Champlain is the major source of drinking water for nearly 200,000 people in more than 20 towns and cities in Vermont, New York and Quebec, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Tom Dion, chief operator of the Burlington Wastewater Treatment Plant, has not seen any indication that the city’s drinking water has been affected by algal blooms in his 25 years at the plant. The authors of the State of the Lake report wrote that Lake Champlain is an excellent source of drinking water as long as the right treatment methods are in place.
Dangerous toxins as well as the high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen are filtered out by the treatment plant.
Swimmers in the lake, however, can suffer health impacts from toxins produced by the blooms. Short-term exposure can lead to minor skin irritation and stomach issues, and longer-term exposure, which is caused by swallowing water with toxins from algae blooms, can result in damage to the liver or the central nervous system, according to the report.
In 2003 the Lake Champlain Committee initiated a blue-green algae bloom monitoring program run by citizen volunteers in nine different bays in Vermont and New York. Any blooms that are found, are reported to the Vermont Department of Health, which continually updates the status of the lake.
Winslow said that they have the volunteers monitoring closer to shore and they are required to submit one report per week.
“The general message that we’re trying to get out to people is to take responsibility for your own actions,” Winslow said. “If you see green, cloudy water, stay out of it. You don’t need a monitor to tell you that all the time.”
Winslow said they have expanded the geographic scope of the monitoring program “tremendously” in the last few years. In addition to the volunteers, there are paid staff who go out to the deeper parts of the lake to monitor for blooms and this is done five days per week, Howe said.
The sighting of algae blooms in areas of the lake that the public is typically allowed to swim in, can result in beach closures. Another cause of such closures is coliform bacteria, such as E. coli, which can be caused by septic problems or sewage spills and overflows.
The report measures each day a beach is closed as one closure. In the report, St. Albans Bay Park is shown as having the most closures, with more than 10 between 2012 and 2014, due to both coliform bacteria and algae blooms. Howe said that St. Albans Bay was closed May 26, 2012, to May 27, 2012, for coliform bacteria and August 16, 2014, to Sept. 2, 2014, for harmful algae blooms.
Across all areas of the lake, there were more than 30 occasions between 2012 and 2014 in which beaches were closed due to coliform bacteria. There were about 25 incidents of algae blooms causing beach closures between 2012 and 2014, according to the report.
Lake cleanup legislation
The report was released just before the recently enacted water quality bill went into effect.
This summer, the Environmental Protection Agency will determine whether the state’s plan to clean up the lake is adequate.
At the bill-signing last month, Gov. Peter Shumlin said the legislation will protect “what makes Vermont so special.” Shumlin has made cleaning up the state’s waters a priority and dedicated his inaugural address to the issue.
But James Ehlers, executive director of Lake Champlain International, said the bill won’t significantly improve water quality. He cites a document from the Government Accountability Office showing that the limits EPA uses for phosphorous levels, known as the Total Maximum Daily Load (the maximum amount of pollution a water body can handle each day), do not work.
A report from the Government Accountability Office says that “TMDLs are likely to do little to attain water quality standards, particularly the designated uses of fishing, swimming, and drinking.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who sponsored the federal act that created the Lake Champlain Basin Program, said in a July 1 statement that years of effort have helped to blunt some of the trends that would have worsened otherwise. Vermonters must continue that progress, he said.
“With a large and dynamic ecosystem like Lake Champlain, there is no standing still,” Leahy said. “We’re either advancing or slipping behind.”
The Department of Environmental Conservation will be required to submit annual reports as part of the water quality bill on how lake cleanup is progressing. The first report is due January 2017.