Oregon Public Broadcasting

Folks in Washington County these days might be tempted to look at their tap water a little more carefully than they would normally.

This summer, people have complained about discolored and smelly water. And toxic algae blooms and dead fish started showing up in the Tualatin River.

The local water company has since used chemicals to improve the drinking water, but advocates are concerned about the likely source of the problem. Rob Manning reports.

On the edge of the Washington County town of Gaston is Wapato Lake. This time of year, it’s usually a dry lake bed, where farmers grow onions and other crops. Not this summer. 

Brian Wegener

Brian Wegener: “This year in December, the dike broke, and a whole lot more water got in here than usual.”

Brian Wegener is with the environmental group, Tualatin Riverkeepers. Now, the Wapato Lake Improvement District is getting rid of the water so they can go in, and fix the dike.

Brian Wegener: “The problem is that this is agricultural land that’s had 75 years of fertilizer application, so lots of nutrients in this water that they’re pumping into the Tualatin River. And the downstream problem is that when we got the warm weather, combined with all these nutrients, we got these algae blooms.”

Rob Manning: “I’m standing now above the pipe that’s actually taking the water out of Wapato Lake and into the Tualatin River. And you can see from here that the color of the water is yellowish-brown as it goes into the very brown-looking river. And there are certainly dotted throughout the water here dead fish, and dead frogs, as well.”

And all of this has prompted head-scratching over who’s responsible.

Brian Wegener is frustrated by the responses he’s gotten from state agencies. The Department of Environmental Quality told him that there was no permit that would apply to this situation.

Brian Wegener: “And Oregon Department of Agriculture is supposed to enforce the Tualatin Basin water quality rules for agriculture, and one of those rules says that you’re not supposed to be putting waste water that’s polluted into another body of water, and they haven’t been enforcing that.”

The pump at Wapato Lake

State agriculture officials say they regulate water used in farming. They say the Wapato Lake discharge involves an irrigation district and lake water, although the lake is on top of farmland.

Wegener says that means that the Department of Environmental Quality should be responsible. That is the lead agency. But DEQ water specialist Avis Newell is reluctant to blame Wapato Lake for all the downstream problems.

Avis Newell: “While Wapato Lake might have contributed to that, high water in other parts of the basin may also have contributed to taste and odor problems.”

DEQ is still waiting on results from tests they did last week. But Newell says water often smells funny in the summer. However, she says DEQ does want to learn more about what exactly the Wapato Lake Improvement District did.

Avis Newell: “We will be talking with folks at Wapato Lake and trying to understand how different this year was from last year. And we will be looking at developing a management plan into the future to deal with some of these kinds of issues.”

Longer term, the management changes at Wapato Lake may not matter – not because of anything state officials will do, but because of federal action.

Back at Wapato Lake, Brian Wegener says he’s anticipating a wildlife refuge, to be run by U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials.

Brian Wegener: “They have one piece of property out here and they’re trying to acquire more. They have a long-term plan to do that. Definitely, a century from now, I would expect that there’s not farming here, that there’s a wildlife refuge, but that’s going to take some time.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is interested in whether the discharge at Wapato Lake is killing the fish and creating the algae blooms.

But ironically, the agency will benefit some, from the pumping at the Lake. With less water there, they can test the soil before buying almost 200 acres for the wildlife refuge to be.