Long Lake Lake Management District 2016

Long Lake 2020

Integrated Aquatic Vegetation Management Plan (IAVMP)


​Kitsap County, a steering team made up of lakefront homeowners, and our consulting team have been working on an Integrated Aquatic Vegetation Management Plan (IAVMP), using a grant from the Department of Ecology. This plan proposes future actions for invasive vegetation management in the Lake. A summary of the IAVMP is provided via the presentation below. Please review the proposed actions and send any comments to ebaker@kitsap.gov.

There was a public meeting to present the IAVMP, discuss the proposals and estimated costs as well as future lake opportunities on November 2, 2022 via Zoom 

Click here to watch the recording of the Public Meeting

If you have any questions, please contact Eric Baker, Deputy County Administrator, at ebaker@kitsap.gov.



Long Lake has been suffering for years with significant water quality issues that have promoted the growth of invasive aquatic plants and toxic algae blooms. These issues come from past land use practices on shoreline and upland lots, surrounding soil conditions and natural lake processes. These issues have impacted use of the lake for recreation and created frequent public health hazards. These issues have been addressed in the past through state-funded management activities to reduce the accessibility of phosphorous and other nutrients within Long Lake.

To fund current management activities, private funding was necessary. To this end, the community and Kitsap County proposed a lake management district for properties surrounding Long Lake. Through annual assessments of $450, properties within the proposed District boundary fund specific lake management activities established by an Integrated/Adaptive Lake Management Plan.
More information regarding maintenance activities, district boundary and assessments can be found in the documents linked under project documents.

For information regarding the previous 2014 lake management district proposal, please visit
Lake Management District for Long Lake (2014)

If you have any question regarding the district proposal, please contact Eric Baker at (360) 337-4495 or ebaker@co.kitsap.wa.us.

UPDATES

August 19, 2022

The cold, wet spring this year, followed by the dry, hot weather we have been experiencing this summer have unfortunately created conditions that are ideal for blue-green algae, which the Kitsap Public Health District posted a warning for on August 16. Phosphorus was flushed into the lake in high quantities from the watershed and through groundwater with the large amount of rains earlier this year. This includes phosphorus from sources such as impervious surfaces, other land-use, and septic systems. The hot summer weather has been ideal for algae uptake of that phosphorus leading to excessive growth. We are seeing these algae blooms at lakes all over the state, unfortunately. More information about algae in Washington lakes can be found at https://www.nwtoxicalgae.org/Default.aspx or Cyanobacteria Assessment Network Application (CyAN app) | US EPA. 


There has not been a phosphorus reduction treatment to reduce algae growth for several years, due to significant cost increases for alum, which was subject to aluminum tariffs imposed in 2018 as well as sharp price increases. Additionally, leaders of Citizens for Improving Long Lake (CILL) and other lakefront homeowners advocated for a focus on treating the rooted weeds over the algae with the remaining funding. Treatment of the weeds and lily pads in Long Lake is not believed to be contributing to the algae blooms, as the targeted species are nitrogen-rich, not phosphorus-rich. 


This is the last year of treatment under the 2016 Lake Management District (LMD). There will be one last weed treatment the week of August 22. If the LMD is going to be renewed, CILL will need to come up with a recommended treatment plan (that includes both aquatic plant management for enhanced beneficial uses and phosphorus inactivation to prevent and limit algal blooms), total cost, and cost per property. Then, property owners will need to vote on (with the majority in favor) the plan in order to implement it. 



July 14, 2021

Herbicides will be applied to non-native aquatic plants in Long Lake beginning the week of July 26 and occurring every few weeks through October. A crew from AquaTechnex will be posting notices along the shoreline, as required by law, before each treatment. The herbicides that will be used are listed in the notice below, which were mailed to each waterfront property on July 14. Please contact Jennifer Haro at the Kitsap County Commissioners' Office at jharo@co.kitsap.wa.us if you have any questions.

Treatment Notice July 14, 2021


May 1, 2020

The first treatment will begin May 18 or 19, 2020, depending on the weather

Aquatic weed control activities will begin soon in Long Lake. Kitsap County has contracted with AquaTechnex, LLC, a company out of Centralia, to treat the pond weed (Potamogeton spp.) that unexpectedly took over large parts of the shoreline last spring and summer. The hatched areas on the map below will be targeted. Lakefront property owners were mailed a notice on April 30 with further details.

AquaTechnex will be applying fluridone pesticide to the pondweed  three times, starting in mid to late May. If necessary, a fourth treatment using Diquat will be applied after the fluridone treatments. Notices will be posted along the waterfront, at the boat launch and at Long Lake Park 24-48 hours before each treatment.

If you have questions, please call Jennifer Haro in the Kitsap County Commissioners' Office at (360)307-4212.



July 16, 2019

Summer 2019 Lake Management Update

Following an alum treatment in April, nutrients in the lake have been significantly reduced greatly improving lake clarity. This should have a substantial effect of any algae blooms in the future removing last year's public health hazard.

However, this lake clarity and remaining nutrients from upland land uses and soils in the lake bottom have led to additional vegetation growth in the lake. A plant survey was conducted on July 1st to document the breadth of this growth. Two new native plant species (sago pondweed and slender-leaved pondweed) have established themselves in the lake. Although native, the densities exceed those that would be found in a healthy lake. Plans are underway to combat this growth through a fall vegetation treatment.

Citizen volunteers have continued lake monitoring on a monthly basis. They are measuring transparency, phosphorus concentrations and chlorophyll. The monitoring, plus plant surveys and observations of conditions will help the scientific team adjust treatment based on what they are finding.

There will be a meeting on July 30, 2019 at 6:00 PM at the Long Lake Community Center to update residents about the efforts of the Lake Management District and to discuss next steps. Click here to see more details in the "Long Lake Mid-summer Update 2019" or the document is in the project documents column.

If you have any questions, please contact Eric Baker, Policy Manager, at (360) 337-4495 or ebaker@co.kitsap.wa.us.



April 11, 2019

As part of our ongoing lake management activities, the Management District has planned an extensive alum treatment to be applied this month. Lakefront property owners will be receiving a Business and Residential Notice in the mail this week for this treatment beginning the week of April 22, 2019.

Consultants will be using a modified boat with spray nozzles to apply alum over the entire surface of the lake. They will be using the Long Lake boat ramp as their staging area, but this will not affect the public’s use of the ramp.

As part of the Washington State Department of Ecology’s permitting requirements, the management district must also install temporary signs at least every hundred feet along the shoreline, no more than 48 hours before the treatment begins. Lakefront owners may notice people placing these 8 ½ x 11-inch signs along your shorelines or docks. We will make this as unobtrusive as possible while still meeting the state notice requirement.

We apologize for any inconvenience and if you have any questions, please contact Jennifer Haro or Eric Baker at (360) 337-7080.

March 8, 2019

Lakefront property owners should receive a notice the week of March 11 regarding upcoming alum treatment of Long Lake. The treatment will take place in late April or early May. Another notice will go out later this Spring when the specific date range is known. The alum will limit nutrients (phosphorus) in the lake, reducing invasive vegetation growth and limiting the potential for toxic algae blooms. 

Some logistics for the treatment: Our contractor will be applying alum to the lake using a modified pontoon boat with a tank and spray nozzles. They will be using the boat launch as a staging area, so visitors to the launch may notice storage tanks for the alum and a thick hose out to the end of the dock. There will also be several tanker trucks delivering the alum to the site during the treatment. However, the boat launch will remain open to the public during the treatment window.

December 12, 2018

Summary 2018 Long Lake statement

The following is a brief outline of Long Lake management activities for the spring through fall of 2018.

Aquatic plant management activities restarted with the late growth season treatment of 25% of the shallow littoral area targeting the invasive non-native (AIS-aquatic invasive species) white lily, Brazilian elodea, and Eurasian water milfoil. Also, included in this treatment was excessively dense beds of native pond weed that also include some AIS targeted above. Every year going forward 15-25% of the lake shallow littoral area will be treated based on a rotational 4-year coverage adaptive program to ensure the re-establishment of native plant communities for aquatic ecosystem recovery, while maximizing the direct beneficial uses of the lake. In the late spring of 2019 the treatment effectiveness will be assessed and new as well as re-treatment areas will be identified for a summer control.

This was an interesting year for lake water quality. The volunteer monitoring team have monitored the lake starting in May through September. The last data set is not yet available from the laboratory. However, here is what the data from May through August informed us about the lake:

  • Perhaps weather was a very influential factor in the nutrient dynamics of the lake in 2018.
    First, the lake experienced a very wet and winter and spring.This may have resulted in a significant flushing of the nutrients out of the lake through May 2018. This flushing may have reduced the available carryover nutrients in the lake significantly.
    Second, the dry warm summer and relatively good water clarity allowed outstanding photosynthetic conditions for aquatic rooted plants and phytoplankton.

  • The summer time lake phosphorus concentrations were significantly less than observed prior to the 2006 and 2007 phosphorus inactivation treatments and only approached levels observed in 2008-2010 in the late July and August in 2018.
    The 2018 total phosphorus only ranged from 18 to 36 micrograms per liter, this is 3 to 4 times less than observed in 2006.

  • Chlorophyll-a, the indicator of algal biomass, remained in the very low productivity range (oligotrophic), an indicator of good water quality, until mid to late July where it was in the mid productivity range (mesotrophic)
    However, by mid to late August the phytoplankton productivity had increased to the eutrophic range in the mid 30's chlorophyll-a micrograms per liter. Still this was well below previous year's levels prior to 2007.

  • It is important to understand that the ratio of chlorophyll to total phosphorus (Chl:TP) based upon the worldwide lake average is 0.3:1. Yet in 2018 that ratio ranged from 0.09:1 to 0.9:1 in Long Lake.
    From May through July the Chl:TP ratio was less than the world average reflecting relatively good water quality. However, in August the ratio changed to 0.9:1 which is 3 times the worldwide average indicating the cyanobacterial (blue-green algae) production was exceeding the phosphorus supply resulting is a bloom.


To limit the phosphorus and thereby limit the phytoplankton potential for an algal bloom production a phosphorus inactivation and water column stripping treatment is planned for the late spring of 2019. This will help limit the potential for a algal bloom and improve overall lake water quality.

September 7, 2018

2018 Treatment Program

The 2018 treatment program is a set-up for the 2019 lake management activities. All chemicals used in these treatments are considered safe for humans, pets and wildlife at the doses and area coverage proposed. However, due to the perceptions of certain chemicals (e.g. glyphosate), the district has drastically limited their usage as described in bold below.

Specifically, aquatic plant treatment will be conducted as described below:

    • The goal for aquatic plant management is to reduce the coverage and density of the three invasive non-native species within the lake (Eurasian water milfoil, Brazilian elodea, and white waterlily) while promoting the enhancement of aquatic habitat by encouraging native rooted plants to reestablish as they were doing in the 2006-2010 management program. This will improve the overall aquatic environment including fisheries, while enhancing recreational opportunities.
    • To do this there will be different areas (within a depth of 12 feet) of the lake treated each year with some areas receiving more than one treatment every five years and others only one treatment.
    • In 2018, the treatment is designed to stress plants within the targeted 16.5 acres of invasive non-native plants that also include some excessively dense native plants, mainly pondweed. This will be a set-up treatment for the 2019 plan to help provide long-term control. This treatment as in years past will start with a contact herbicide dibromide to reduce the effective overwintering of the plant within the treatment area so that the 2019 treatment will provide greater effective control. Also, 5 acres of  the southern end of the lake will be treated with a low dose glyphosate in order to control the white lily reducing its density by at least 60% within a shoreline area. While deemed safe for usage, glyphosate is only planned for the one treatment in 2018. No future use is intended to address the invasive species through 2022.
    • All other treatments of aquatic plants in 2019-2022 will be a combo of fluridone (for Eurasian watermilfoil and Brazilian elodea), triclopyr (for white waterlily) and dibromide. With fluridone to be the dominant herbicide used as in the 2006-2010 program.
    • In 2019, volunteer citizen training will begin for direct actions to be taken by lake shoreline residents to help refine and improve lake conditions. This will including cutting/racking for lilies and some other plants, and bottom barrier installation for all plants. This will allow enhance recreation in specific areas without herbicides.

The treatment program will control cyanobacteria (Blue-greens) blooms that can lead to HABs (Harmful Algal Blooms) by reducing the available phosphorus in the lake. As in the past, alum will be applied to the lake to inactivate the available phosphorus and prevent the excess production for cyanobacteria as described below.

    • In the fall of 2018 a low dose alum treatment will be applied to the lake to strip available phosphorus out of the water column and to inactivate some of the sediment phosphorus within the lake.
    • This will be a set-up treatment to be followed up with a spring 2019 alum application to further inactivate sediment phosphorus and to remove lake water column phosphorus that was brought to the lake via watershed in the winter and early spring runoff.
    • Another alum treatment(s) will occur in 2020-2022 depending upon the water quality data collected and the need to further suppress available phosphorus from simulating HAB occurrences.  

 

As part of the volunteer citizen training for plant management, we will start in 2019 to train and inform shoreline residents, as well as interested watershed residents, what they can do to reduce the impact of nutrient loading to the lake, with the emphasis on phosphorus runoff reduction. This will include:

    • Lake and shoreline reduced phosphorus friendly landscaping,
    • Waterfowl discouragement (remember three geese or three ducks produce the same amount of phosphorus and nitrogen as one human),
    • Impervious area management including biofiltration via landscaping. 


If you have any questions, please contact Eric Baker, Kitsap County Policy Manager at ebaker@co.kitsap.wa.us or (360) 337-4495.

October 2017

Long Lake Management District No. 3 Proposal – PASSES

After tabulation of the ballots submitted by property owners through February 10 2017, the proposal to form Long Lake Management District No. 3 has passed with a 55.5% yes vote (simple majority was required).

With Board of Commissioner approval of the District on June 12, 2017 and the assessment roll on August 14, 2017, Kitsap County has put the maintenance activities out to competitive bid. Through a request for proposal process, members of Kitsap County Stormwater, Kitsap Public Health, the Noxious Weed Board and Commissioners Office, will review submittals and select a consultant to begin lake activities in the near future.

To ensure good coordination between the residents within the District and the contractor, Kitsap will be forming an advisory committee made up of local residents, the departments listed above and the contractor. This will allow a quarterly assessment of any issues that may arise during the maintenance activities. If you reside within the district and have interest in serving on such a committee, please contact Eric Baker, Policy Manager, at the information below.

If you have any questions regarding the proposal, the ballot tabulation or next steps. Please contact Eric Baker at (360) 337-4495 or ebaker@co.kitsap.wa.us.