Clean Lakes Report
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THE CAUSES AND CONTROL OF ALGAL BLOOMS IN CLEAR LAKE Clean Lakes Diagnostic/Feasibility Study For Clear Lake, California prepared for: Lake County Flood Control and Water Conservation District California State Water Resources Control Board United States Environmental Protection Agency by: Peter J. Richerson Project Director Thomas H. Suchanek Project Co-Director Stephen J. Why UC Davis Field Scientist LCFCWCD Water Quality Specialist University of California—Davis Division of Environmental Studies Editing and Production: Cat-En Woodmansee, Post Graduate Researcher, UCD Project Manager: Thomas Smythe Water Resources Engineer Lake County Flood Control and Water Conservation District With technical contributions by: Julia Camp, Student Assistant, UCD Heath J. Carney, Research Associate, UCD Bruce Follansbee, Graduate Group in Ecology, UCD Brad Lamphere, Post Graduate Researcher, UCD Xiaoping Li, Scientist, Shanghai EPA Patrick Neale, Scientist, Smithsonian Environmental Research Laboratory Thomas Smythe, Water Resources Engineer, LCFCWCD Charles Vaughn, Soil Chemist, Hopland Research & Extension Center, UC Cat-En Woodmansee, Post Graduate Researcher, UCD Lake County/UCD Clean Lakes Project: Final Report, July 1994 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We very much appreciate the support and assistance Control and Water Conservation District generously of many officials, technical staff, and citizens of Lake provided preliminary data on 1993 releases from County. Supervisor Karan Mackey was instrumental Clear Lake. Jane Stuart of the Department of Water in generating and sustaining official County sup-port Resources (DWR) made sure we had tributary creek for the project. Louise Talley, Chair of the Algae discharge data on time! Thanks also goes to Grant Subcommittee of the Clear Lake Basin Integrated Miller at DWR Bottle Rock. Resource Management Committee played an exceed- ingly important role in coordinating County, Agency, Many Lake County staff that have provided impor- and Citizen input into the project. Our Project Su- tant assistance include: Nick Kadinger, Skip Simkins, pervisor at the Lake County Flood Control and Wa- and Dana Thibeau of the Lakebed Management De- ter Conservation District (LCFCWCD), Thomas partment, Steve Zalusky, Mark Dellinger, and Kim Smythe, conceived the project, wrote the original Seidler of the Planning Department, Leona Kempf grant proposal and Scope of Work, and provided of LCFCWCD and Mark Lockhart, Agricultural Com- technical and managerial assistance on a wide vari- missioner. ety of issues. To fully detail the role of these three individuals would require a chapter of its own. Other The Hopland Research and Extension Center (Rob- individuals were almost as important. The Directors ert Timm Director) provided support in water chem- of the LCFCWCD Hank Porter (until January, 1992) istry via a grant of staff time (Charles Vaughn, soil and then Steve Hill (until September 1993) solved a chemist) which was essential to the benthic and number of otherwise intractable problems. Robert stream water quality work. Application for the Reynolds, Air Pollution Control Officer of the Lake Station's help was suggested by Greg Guisti, Coop- County Air Quality Management District provided erative Extension, who was similarly helpful on a advice, encouragement, and generous material sup- number of occasions. UCD resources, especially from port for a number of subprojects. The Lake County the State Ecotoxicology Training Grant (Dan Ander- Mosquito Abatement District and its Director Bill son, Director) and the EPA funded Center For Eco- Davidson and Scientists Art Colwell (now Director), logical Health Research (Dennis Rolston, Director) Norm Anderson and David Woodward provided us have made large contributions to the project. A con- with much technical and material assistance includ- tract from Region 9 EPA to UCD to support a ing temporary laboratory accommodations. Public Superfund Ecological Assessment of the Sulfur Bank Works Director Gerry Shaul and LCFCWCD Direc- Mercury Mine (Caroline D'Almeida, Project Super- tor Sue Arterburn have provided important help in visor) provided data and resources for this project as the last phases of the project. a byproduct of that investigation. City, county, state and federal elected officials have Staff Lauri Holts, Linda Ono, Pat Hale and Brad been most supportive of our goals, and even on the Lamphere of UCD helped immensely with a variety occasions when they felt they could not support a of tasks. County-paid assistants Robert Reynolds, Jr., particular phase of the project, they have been in- William Koehler, and county employee Rich Sowers variably thoughtful and courteous. played similarly essential roles in numerous sub- projects. Cat Woodmansee was responsible for data Larry Week and Rick Macedo of the California De- management, QA/QC, and document production on partment of Fish and Game have passed on many the project, all of which he handled with competence bits of knowledge about the lake. Len Kashuba, Soil and good humor under pressure. Conservation Service, has been quite active in mobi- lizing his agency to contribute studies related to up- We very much appreciate the efforts of our technical land erosion; these important investigations are be- contributors. Several donated all or part of the time ginning in a timely fashion because of his and his required, and all made a material difference to the agency's commitment to Lake County's conservation breadth and quality of the report. goals. Richard Smith, President of the West Lake Re- source Conservation District, has provided important Charles Goldman provided an important initial im- encouragement for the upland erosion plans. Dana petus to the project. Andy Bale, Gerald Orlob and Cole, California Division of Forestry, discussed fire John DeGeorge offered important insights based on data with us. Paul Marshall of the Regional Water their physical model of the lake. Similarly useful ideas Quality Control Board helped with waste water came from Jim Swinehart, Alan Jassby, Doug Nelson, assessment. Christy Barton of Yolo County Flood and Erin Mack. ii Lake County/UCD Clean Lakes Project: Final Report, July 1994 A number of private citizens of Lake County have of this program until 1977, after which time its col- supported the project. Wilson and Christine Goddard lection was supervised by Gerald Boles. It is most (Goddard and Goddard Engineering) long encour- regrettable that budget and staff constraints, and aged and then supported UC involvement in envi- other problems, have prevented DWR and its staff ronmental quality projects at Clear Lake. Our Volun- from preparing a formal report on this information teer Network and the many citizen members of the since 1975 (although monthly reports of data were Algae Subcommittee have been important sources of released to Lake County from 1979 until 1986). We information material and moral support. Special especially regret that such constraints have prevented thanks also go to Lee Beery, Nancy Fugate, Marion DWR coauthorship of this report, as envisioned in Geoble, Mike Umbrello, Sam Lambert, Terry Knight, the original Scope of Work for the project. Therefore John Graham, Donna Lowdermilk, Ben Lawson, Jerry we much appreciate the assistance that DWR staff and MaryAnn McQueen, David McGhee, Bob and have been able to provide. Steve Turek, Fraiser Simes Marion Summerrill, and John Hubbell. and other DWR field staff were helpful in important ways. Gerald Boles (DWR Biologist) and George The energy and support of Wendell Smith, EPA Re- Gaston (DWR labs in Bryte, Calif.) reviewed the gion 9, was absolutely essential in reactivating the methods sections describing the collection and analy- California Clean Lakes Program in response to re- sis of the DWR data in Chapter 4. Special thanks are quests from Lake County. owed to Northern District Chief Linton Brown for extraordinary support at a critical juncture. Our Technical Advisory Committee has provided excellent support and advice throughout the project. Early versions of this report were made available for TAC members were Janet Blake, Tom Smythe, review. The Draft Interim and Draft Final Reports Charles Goldman, Alex Home, Gerald Boles, Jerry received significant helpful comment from the fol- Bruns, Richard Macedo, Art Colwell, Len Kashuba, lowing: Tom Smythe, Tim Hollibaugh, Rick Macedo, Jeff Gobel, and Rebbeca Miller. Dick Lamkin, Mathias Kondolf, John Brooks, Jerry Boles, Alan Jassby and Art Colwell. Past scientific investigators, including Alex Home, Charles Goldman, Wayne Wurtsbaugh, Garth As usual, only the authors can be held responsible for the Murphy, Gary Gill, and Steve Herman have shared accuracy of the data in this report and for the conclusions recollections and unpublished data with us. Robert drawn. Swanson (Pacific Gas & Electric) kindly provided us with long-term meteorological data. Peter Richerson Thomas Suchanek The water quality data set collected by the California Stephen Why Department of Water Resources, continuously since May, 1968, forms the single most important basis for July 28, 1994 this report. Richard Lallatin was in charge This document (report) was prepared through Contract No. 0-166-250- 0 in the amount of $100, 000.00 with the California State Water Resources Control Board. iii Lake County/UCD Clean Lakes Project Final Report, July 1994 CONTENTS Executive Summary Objectives 2.1 Objectives of the Clean Lakes Project .......................................................................... I-1