July 8, 2009
The district is working on several other projects aimed at tackling the excessive nutrients that fuel cyanobacteria outbreaks.
The board agreed to contract for the creation of a water quality database, using data from 1957 onward, so that the effectiveness of future habitat restoration projects can be effectively measured.
Robertson said the database would also lay the groundwork for an upcoming project from the Department of Environmental Quality to determine what level of nutrient inflow the lake can cope with per day and how that inflow can be reduced.
The database project makes use of a $15,000 grant from the DEQ and requires about five weeks of staff time as a match.
The district is also hoping to partner with Lincoln City and Lincoln County on a septic tank revitalization program to identify septic tanks that are leaking into the lake and encourage owners, through a mixture of incentives and penalties to fix them.
Finally, the district is working with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to develop a way of encouraging the growth of native vegetation, which can act as a buffer against inflowing nutrient’s as well as preventing shoreline erosion.
Robertson said ODFW has advised shielding planting sites with a fine mesh to prevent them from becoming a habitat for predatory fish that prey on young Coho salmon.
Devils Lake Navigator 