Toxic algae could be a WRAP
Staff writer
The algae first came to the county in May 2003.
Vibrant, foamy “blooms” sprang up all but overnight on the surface of Marion Reservoir.
They were blue and bright green, their splotchy shapes resembling alien life forms.
And they were everywhere.
Since that May, blooms have popped up every summer in the reservoir.
Officials have done much to try to stop them, but only now has it appeared to hit upon a solution.
To those in the know, the blooms didn’t come as a surprise.
Five years before the first appeared, a number of local individuals and organizations — from former mayor Peggy Blackman to Tabor College — worked with the U.S. Department of the Interior to run tests on reservoir water.
What they found were concentrations of nitrate, phosphorus, and atrazine far exceeding safe levels.
Fecal coliform bacteria, created in animal intestines, also was found in abundance.
It wasn’t too hard to figure out where the stuff had come from.
Nearby farms’ manure and fertilizers for years had washed into French Creek and Cottonwood River, which flowed into the reservoir.
Bacteria already spread and spawned, and, coupled with hot summer weather, caused the first algae blooms to appear.
When they die, certain algae from the blooms produce toxins that infect water and air and can cause illness.
When the first blooms appeared, Marion, Hillsboro, and Peabody’s drinking water was the most immediate problem to be solved.
Marion began drawing water from its reserve supply, a well on Clear Creek.
Hillsboro, which also supplies Peabody’s water, paid to ship water into town.
After the algae dissipated, the towns returned to drawing water from the reservoir.
By 2008, it had become clear the blooms weren’t going away anytime soon, and both purchased ozone filtering systems to remove the toxins at their water plants.
In March 2023, Hillsboro’s plant received a $1.1 million loan to upgrade to an activated carbon filtering system.
But equipment couldn’t solve another problem created by the algae: its impact on the camping season.
Swimming and fishing became dangerous activities at a time of year when the reservoir made the county the most money.
Algae warnings advised visitors not to come in contact with reservoir water nor to let pets or livestock drink it.
The warnings weren’t just for show, either. In July 2007, three dogs died in one weekend after drinking reservoir water.
Thankfully, algae blooms have been greatly reduced with help of federal money and the work of the county conservation district.
The district put together a Watershed Restoration Protection Strategy (WRAPS) plan to de-pollute the reservoir in 2010.
The plan was rewarded with a federal grant of $100,000 a year to spend.
Money was used for education as much as anything.
According to the original grant application, WRAPS used “targeted soil health meetings to facilitate peer-to-peer discussions.”
The meetings, according to WRAPS administrator Lisa Suderman, helped convince farmers to build berms and other buffers between their feedlots and the reservoir.
WRAPS money also went to assisting farmers applying to other grants that would provide federal money for moving feedlots and switching to healthier agricultural practices like no-till farming.
“Basically, finding sources for them,” Suderman said.
WRAPS paid for grass planting needed to create effective blockades between farm and reservoir as well as chemical removal, in one case from “a large, licensed livestock feeding facility that appears to drain directly into the reservoir,” according to the report.
Work was slow, but water quality in the reservoir improved over time.
In early 2022, the reservoir was taken off a federal list of bodies of water with copper toxicity.
Copper had previously come from a wheat fungicide. Its removal indicated that the grant had had an effect on local farming techniques.
“That was a huge thing, and that has to do with the practices that have been implemented by the farmers in the area, decreasing the amount of runoff hitting that lake,” Suderman said.
But just when things were looking up, the algae struck again.
A massive bloom in June, 2022, forced the closure of the reservoir for a week.
Even back in 2003, the reservoir never completely closed. But this bloom was so enormous that authorities determined it would be too dangerous to leave the waterfront open.
“2022 was a horrible drought year, and so all it did was concentrate the amount of water that was sitting there,” Suderman said. “It was not good.”
Since then, the conservation district has gotten back to work strengthening WRAPS.
Its latest rewrite of the plan gives the agency influence over all areas bordering the lake, expanding the area where it can pay for berms and grassland.
The new fund also can be used to subsidize farmers who want to get rid of cropland.
“People want to make changes for the better,” Suderman said. “There’s some ground in Marion County that probably should have never been farmed. If they can get cost share to put that back to permanent grass, a lot of guys are receptive to that, because it doesn’t make financial sense, with the cost of seed fertilizer, to keep throwing money at a piece of ground that isn’t going to yield.”
The department removes wheat, corn, or beans planted around the reservoir and replaces them with natural buffers such as hay, brome, kernza, or alfalfa.
“It’s amazing the amount of sediment that you can keep in place when you’re not killing that ground,” Suderman said.
The district’s aggressive approach has drawn approval from other agricultural officials.
“They put up berms, they change how the water flows, they create filters, they clean that water before it hits the creek,” extension office manager Ricky Roberts said. “Not all conservation districts, or conservation managers, are as aggressive in terms of getting money spent and getting practices on the ground.”
Natural Resources Conservation Service manager Matt Meyerhoff also praised Suderman and the WRAPS program.
“They’re doing work the federal government can’t do,” he said. “It’s been a great way for producers to come in and work with us on improving water quality.”
One of the quirks of WRAPS is that each landowner must be convinced to improve his or her plot.
No one is forced to change practices, even when they clearly are harming water quality.
“If someone is interested in conservation of any kind that wants to improve the environment, that’s what we do,” Suderman said. “We don’t tell people, ‘You have to do this. You have to do that.’”
A consequence of this moderate approach is that WRAPS would be unaffected if President Donald Trump were to slash the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency, as he has hinted at doing.
The program still needs federal money, but that comes largely through Kansas’ congressmen.
“Funds through Congress are essential, and we’ve worked very well with Senator [Jerry] Moran and Senator [Roger] Marshall’s office,” Suderman said. “They understand the importance of conservation.”
If those senators stop backing WRAPS, it could lead to ecological paradise for algae and disaster for the water quality in Marion Reservoir.
But if the money keeps flowing in, algae blooms may soon become a thing of the past, as they virtually disappeared this past summer.
It would be a resounding success for Marion’s conservation district. Perhaps a celebratory dip in the water would be in order.