Lake's Pollution to be Topic of Study

as reported in the Daily News
April 17th, 2006
by Kelly Hawes

Galveston  – City officials have agreed to form an ad hoc committee to look for ways to clean up Lake Madeline.

“Undoubtedly and undeniably, there’s a problem,” Councilman Danny Weber said at a city council workshop last week. “The bottom line is it’s a stagnant body of water, and we’ve got to do something with it.”

Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas asked Weber to assemble a committee to study the problem and make recommendations.

The man-made lake is between Beluche Drive and 81st Street just southeast of the island’s airport.

Ronnie Schultz, director of environmental programs for the county health district, told the council that his staff had begun a yearlong effort to monitor water quality.

“Right now we have more questions than we have answers,” he said.

An inspection in December found evidence of sewage debris in the water and foam streaming from the area of the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

A water sample produced a positive reading for coliform bacteria, indicating the presence of human waste. It also found ammonia, another indicator of animal and human waste, and phosphates, something typically found in fertilizers and detergents.

Tests in March showed improvement over those in December, Schultz said, but that was to be expected because of drier weather. “And the test results were still over federal standards,” he said.He also noted elevated pH levels.

This increases the danger to marine organisms and to the safety of the water,” he said.The bottom line, Schultz said, is that the lake is polluted.

“We also found chlorine in the water,” Schultz said. “There should be none there, so we’re looking at that also.”

Brandon Wade, the assistant city manager, said personnel at the treatment plant tested the water leaving the plant every day, and he said those numbers were lower than the ones recorded by the health district.

“So there is something coming from somewhere else,” he said.

Some of the contamination reaching the lake is coming from city storm sewers, and part of the problem is with the lake itself.

“The design of the lake provides for poor water flow,” Schultz said. “Lakes in this situation become nutrient traps.”

He said the health district was also concerned about the trapping of bacteria in the sediments of the lake.

Weber said his committee would look for solutions, including installing a system to improve water circulation.

“Let’s get together, and let’s identify some solutions and move with it,” he said.

Councilwoman Patricia Bolton-Legg voiced surprise at the lack of signs warning residents of the water conditions, and City Manager Steve LeBlanc promised to rectify that. He noted that the property owners association had done a good job of keeping neighbors informed about the lake’s condition.

“We’ll still put a notice out, and we’ll put up signs,” he said. LeBlanc noted that he had a personal stake in the outcome. “I live on the lake, so I have some personal feelings about it,” he said. He noted, though, that the lake was never designed for recreation. “It is a drainage structure,” he said.

City Councilwoman Jackie Cole didn’t buy that. “The idea that it’s a drainage facility doesn’t fly,” she said. “People look at it as a recreational facility, and it needs to be cleaned up.”

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