Chelan City Council approves funding for water quality monitoring on Lake Chelan

CHELAN - The Chelan City Council is beginning to take more action toward monitoring the quality of the Lake Chelan after approving a request for $10,000 from Chelan County for Keep It Blue.

The $10,000 will add to the $45,000 that is already funded from multiple agencies including Chelan County, Cascadia Conservation, the Reclamation District and the State Department of Ecology (DOE).

While the council members were all in agreement for funding the program a discussion about how much funding to award would be appropriate.

“Just to sample one component is an annual cost of $59,000,” councilman Skip Morehouse said. “If you follow the study, over the years going back to 2004, they have had very spotty data because they have not had a consistent plan. So Lake Chelan, unlike a lot of other lakes, has no consistent data.”

Morehouse has been attending the Lake Chelan Water Quality meetings for the past five years and meeting with various agencies and community members about how to promote water quality in Lake Chelan.

“I think they asked for less because they want a long term plan and are the most active group I’ve seen. So I am going to suggest we double the amount to $20,000 for a five year period,” Morehouse stated. “Chelan has not taken the lead role in this and we should. People come up here for the lake, and it is our biggest and best resource, we need to keep it pristine, and the only way to do that is to monitor.”

Morehouse said the additional funding would allow Keep it Blue to start building on their program and make it easier to find other partners, knowing the city stepped up.

However, not every council member was in consensus with the proposal.

“I would feel more comfortable if that request came from Mike (Kaputa) and the group that is driving this,” council woman Erin McCardle responded. “I agree with you, but I would rather see the request come from them so we see what the money is being committed to.”

Morehouse reminded council again that testing only one component costs $59,000 a year.

“For biological testing or if you want to monitor dissolved oxygen, nitrogen or any other, it will cost an additional amount for that probe,” Morehouses insisted. “We just have a total lack of scientific information and at some point we have to start doing something. We shouldn’t be afraid to do the right thing.”

Councilman Ray Dobbs, although supporting Morehouse’s proposal, sided with McCardle, saying he would prefer to approve the original motion and encourage the county to come back with a five year proposal.

“I wouldn’t have any trouble with the $20,000 at that point. I would really like to see them come to us before we do our budget for next year so we can put it in the budget,” Dobbs said. “I think everyone here has nothing but support for this.”

Morehouse then withdrew his previous motion before making a similar one, that would award the $20,000 for a five year period, contingent on a five year proposal that would describe where the money would go.

Council voted down the motion on the floor before requesting a third from Morehouse that would tie in an inter-local agreement with the county with a proposal for a five year plan at $20,000 per year.

Council passed the motion unanimously.

The next Chelan City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 13 at 6 p.m.

Zach Johnson can be reached at lcmeditor@gmail.com or (509) 682-2213