State questioned quality of reservoir water years ago
Marion County's current water crisis is not the first time state water safety experts have raised concerns over the suitability of Marion Reservoir for public recreation and as a source for plants creating drinking water.
In 2000, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported: "Water quality of Marion Reservoir has been shown to be impaired by nutrients, pesticides, sediment, and bacteria. These impairments have caused the lake to be non-supportive of contact recreation and only partially supportive for drinking water."
In other words, reservoir visitors should avoid contact with the water, and local water plants should be on the alert that the reservoir might not be suitable as a sole source of raw water for treatment.
In December 2001, in a report on watershed conditions for the upper Cottonwood River stated that the primary pollution problem in Marion Reservoir was "eutrophication," a natural process — often accelerated by excess crop nutrients — that creates conditions favorable for algae blooms.
The report identified likely pollutant sources for this as row-crop agriculture, livestock, feed lots and septic systems.
It went on to say that 25 percent of the lakes and 41.6 percent of the total miles of streams and rivers in the watershed failed to meet standards for their designated uses.
Water sampled in 1998 as a part of a Marion County Conservation district project showed that excess phosphates and nitrates existed at points on the Marion Reservoir watershed. All rivers and streams located in the watershed drain to the Reservoir.
The conservation district is in Phase 2 of the five-year program that tested the quality of water within the watershed.
After Phase I was complete, results noted that some areas of the watershed showed "excessive" levels of nitrite plus nitrate and phosphorous. And when Tabor College students, who were assisting with the project, took further samples during "runoff events," they found "extremely high" readings of nitrates and phosphates.
"Excessive nutrient and sediment influx into (the) lake's tributaries was affecting population of these (lake) organisms," according to project results.
Working with the United States Geological Survey and the Tabor students, the district took 25 water samples at creeks, streams, and rivers within the area. Samples were taken on Dec. 1 and 2, 1998, with one sample per site. The sites were along the North Cottonwood River, Perry Creek, Silver Creek, and French Creek.
The water samples were tested for dissolved solids, nutrients, pesticides, and fecal coliform bacteria. The nutrients component included tests for nitrates and phosphates. In all, the median amount of nitrite/nitrate was 0.33 milligrams per liter, and the median amount of phosphorous was 0.08 milligrams per liter. Nitrogen levels were highest in grassland nearly a mile northeast of Canton and in grassland on the east end of Silver Creek. There, levels were 10 mg/L and 2.6 mg/L, respectively.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has said that drinking water can contain no more than 10 milligrams per liter.
"This relatively high concentration may be a result of agricultural practices — fertilizer application, pasturing of livestock, and (or) confined feeding operations," according to project results.
For phosphorous, the highest concentration was again northeast of Canton, where the reading was 2.5 mg/L. Phosphorous was also high in grassland about a mile east of Lehigh, where the reading was 0.30 mg/L. The EPA recommends a limit of 0.10 mg/L, according to the results.
"The relatively high concentrations of total phosphorous in water from (these two sites) probably were due to their location downstream from wastewater treatment facilities," project results said.
