Galveston  – The Galveston County Health District will begin monitoring this month in an effort to pinpoint the source of contamination in Lake Madeline.

“We met with the homeowners association and talked to them about what we’re going to do,” said Ronnie Schultz, director of environmental programs for the health district.The findings won’t come quickly, he said.

“We want to get sample results for about 12 months,” he said.He declined to guess what the sampling might find.

“It’s really hard to say,” he said. “It could be something as simple as a sanitary sewer leak. It could be a midnight dumper. You just never know.”

The health district first became involved in the situation in December when a staff member responded to a citizen’s complaint concerning the water in the entrance canal to the lake. The water appeared brown, the complaint said, and it smelled like sewage.

“Based upon the results of an intensive investigation and the testing of multiple water samples, the health district’s conclusions are highly suggestive of the presence of sewage contamination in the waters of Lake Madeline,” Schultz said in a report dated Jan. 18.

The report noted elevated ammonia levels in samples taken in the entrance canal to the lake, and it said samples taken at two locations contained bacteria levels comparable to what would be seen in water contaminated with raw sewage.

“The presence of this material may also be a causative agent to the odors in the area,” the report said.

The city of Galveston took offense to the report, seeing in it an implication that the contamination might have come from the city’s nearby treatment plant. Schultz, though, said he hadn’t intended to point any fingers.

The report said future complaints would be referred to the city, but Schultz said his staff returned to the case at the insistence of Mark Guidry, the district’s chief executive officer. “He was concerned about some of the findings from a public health standpoint,” Schultz said.

Brandon Wade, director of public works, municipal utilities and engineering, verified this week that the city was bowing out.

“We have yielded to the health district,” he said.

Schultz said his staff would keep Guidry apprised of its findings, but so far, he said, no warnings or advisories have been issued.

For More Information Contact:
Kurt Koopmann
Public Information Officer
Galveston County Health District
(409) 938-2211 or 409.392.0007
kkoopman@gchd.org