Water quality = quality of life: Station that monitors water quality in jeopardy as funds dry up
<p>FLBS Lab manager Adam Baumann adds detergent to runoff to determine if there is any sewage leaking into the water that runs into Flathead Lake.</p>
Station that monitors water quality in jeopardy as funds dry up
YELLOW BAY – The quality of water in Flathead Lake affects property values, tourism, agriculture, outdoor sporting and health.
Yet officials believe the lake’s only water-quality measuring project is in jeopardy due to massive reductions in state and federal funding and increased competition for dwindling grants.
The University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station’s ongoing monitoring project supplies data for at least six other regulatory agencies, said station research scientist Tom Bansak. Those agencies decide how to keep the water clean enough to balance economic growth with protecting the ecology of the lake.
Real estate brokers like Lakeside’s Bruce Young understand how the lake affects property values. He subscribes to the age-old saying that has been recently revived: Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.
“Water quality is a critical factor that affects not only our living environment but our economy at every level,” Young said. “Potable water is the commodity of this century and it is Northwest Montana’s most valuable asset.”
UM economists estimate the lake increases shoreline property values by a collective $6 billion to $8 billion. Nature-based tourism accounts for more than 20 percent of the economy of Flathead and Lake Counties, according to station officials.
“People sometimes don’t realize how good we have it here,” Bansak said.
He said the lake is one of the cleanest in the continental United States where people live.
“It is our goal to keep it that way,” Bansak said during a recent tour of the station.
Founded in 1899, it is one of the oldest active biological stations in the country, according to university officials. It costs between $200,000 to $250,000 annually to keep the project alive, Bansak said.
But the recent cuts threaten the continuation of the project.
“Without monitoring, we can’t hope to manage the complex issues affecting the water in the Flathead Basin,” Young said.
Just when it looked like the project would sink, it was tossed a lifeboat.
Two years ago, a local anonymous donor pledged $1 million to preserve the monitoring program if the communities surrounding the lake could match it.
As of May 1, officials received more than $570,000 in donations,
“The people who have contributed know this lake is a very special place and worthy of their investment in its future,” said station Director Jack Stanford.
Kalispell real estate broker Dusty Dziza is so concerned about maintaining the lake’s water quality, she pledges a portion of her sales commissions to the monitoring program.
About 300 families responded to a Lake Monitoring Challenge Grant mailing in 2013 by donating $55,000. But with more than $400,000 to collect, the deadline of Dec. 31, 2014, looms for station officials.
But station scientists are not fundraisers or marketers, and they need another push.
“The (station) does many things to meet our goal of research, education and outreach,” Bansak said. “But the monitoring project is probably the most direct public benefit.”
In March, station officials were challenged with an unexpected expense of pulling the iconic yellow buoys from the lake for repairs and maintenance. They hope to get the buoys afloat again this summer.
Jack Hanna, world-renowned animal expert and TV personality, is one of the Flathead Lake residents who supports the station.
“I have been all around the world, and there is no finer lake than Flathead,” Hanna said. “The Bio Station’s monitoring work is very important to keep it that way.”
If the community can meet the fund-raising goal, it would help fund the monitoring program in perpetuity.
The second $1 million will be placed in a UM Foundation endowment and the station would receive an estimated $50,000 in interest annually.
“The original grant amount, the principal, will never be spent,” Bansak said.
The state supplies $100,000 annually for the project and the rest of the funding would come from grants and endowments, he said.