Lake Waterford Health Advisory Lifted, Future Remains Unclear

Years Of Inaction Have Created Long-Term Sustainability Questions

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*The day this story was published, Oct. 16, the Anne Arundel County Department of Health announced that it had lifted the harmful algal bloom advisory against direct water contact for Lake Waterford in Pasadena. According to DOH, "the Maryland Department of the Environment reported the latest microcystin level for Lake Waterford is 2.0 ppb (parts per billion), which is below the state water contact advisory threshold of 10 ppb."

More than three months after Anne Arundel County officials identified serious concerns about Lake Waterford’s water quality, the health advisory has been lifted, but it remains unclear if there are any long-term plans or solutions.

On July 3, the Anne Arundel County Department of Health issued a health advisory that warned people to avoid any direct contact with the water in the 12-acre Pasadena lake because of a blue-green algae bloom. 

“The yellow signs up around the park are from the health department, and are there just to give people a heads up to the situation and provide recommendations for visitors,” explained Matthew Grey, a park ranger at Lake Waterford Park. “The current policy is that people can fish at the lake, but should wash their hands immediately after, simply out of an abundance of caution.”

These blooms “naturally occur in fresh waters and in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay. The blooms are in nutrient-rich environments and may become harmful when they occur in high concentrations or if they produce toxins,” according to Anne Arundel County Department of Health. Along with the yellow advisory signs, a cautionary measure has been taken by closing the parking lots adjacent to the lake.

Officials have been sampling and testing the water throughout the summer and into the fall, according to Grey, who has spent 14 years as a park ranger. He explained that the Maryland Department of the Environment conducts the sampling and testing and provides the results to the Anne Arundel County Health Department.

“The water is sampled regularly, and when you get an algae bloom it’s taken very seriously,” Grey said. “It’s going to come down to the health department and us to monitor regularly and report as soon as possible and staying vigilant.”

The decision to remove the signs and “reopen” the lake would be up to the health department, according to Grey.

“With cooler weather coming, it’s only a matter of time before the algae dissipates,” Grey said. “Some rain wouldn’t hurt either. Any time you manage a body of water, you have great joy when things are going well, but a lot of anxiety when issues arise; this algae bloom has been very unfortunate.”

The president of the Magothy River Association, Paul Spadaro, would argue that “unfortunate” is a bit of an understatement. He feels that the community and his organization, which is dedicated to preserving the river that Lake Waterford feeds into, have been left in the dark.

“I knew the water quality wasn’t great, but the process in general has been a bit of a mystery to [the MRA],” said Spadaro, who has also been monitoring the water all summer.

He thinks the county needs to do more to address the issue, and to re-establish Lake Waterford as a healthy natural resource for Pasadena and the surrounding communities to enjoy.

“The county has to realize it’s a problem. At the very least, we want to force the county to have a plan,” Spadaro said. “This is a toxic substance and needs to be addressed - rather than just putting up a few signs and closing the lake. This is [part of] a county park that has essentially been closed since July. That can’t be acceptable.”

Later this month, Spadaro and the MRA will be out on the lake to facilitate work he hopes will help spur officials toward taking action to restore this vital part of the upper Magothy. The MRA has contracted University of Maryland to get core samples from the bottom of the lake. The group is providing the boat and the funding for this effort, and it will provide all of its findings to the county.

“This is a pollution source if these core samples have high levels of toxins like phosphorus and nitrogen,” explained Spadaro. If this is the case, he said it would demonstrate that, “Lake Waterford is starting to act like a holding pond for sediment, which would necessitate dredging every 20 or 30 years.”

Contributing factors to the deterioration of the lake could be increased sediments making their way into the lake from runoff and increases impervious surfaces related directly to the ongoing development in and around the area. However, none of this should come as a surprise. According to Spadaro, a 2008 report identified significant issues related to sediment and water quality. The report recommended that the only way to fix water quality in lakes facing these issues would likely be to dredge the lakes.

Two years after this report, in March 2010, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Department of the Environment reported a large fish kill at Lake Waterford - a day after the lake had been stocked with fish. Approximately 500 fish, including gizzard shad, sunfish and stocked rainbow trout, were found floating along the surface of the water due to severely low oxygen levels. The following year, the DNR discontinued its annual practice of stocking the lake with thousands of trout each spring due to insufficient oxygen levels and poor water quality. The entire lake had essentially become a dead zone.

Fast-forward nine years later, and the lake is not dangerous only to fish but to the community as well.

More information about blooms can be found on the Maryland Department of Natural Resources website: dnr.maryland.gov/waters/bay/Pages/algal_blooms/Algae-Bloom-FAQ.aspx. To report human illness from bloom water contact, call the bay health hotline at 877-224-4229.

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