Interested in learning more about the health of Camas’ lakes and the city’s proposed plan to improve the lakes’ water quality?
The city of Camas will host an open house at 6 p.m. July 12 at Lacamas Lake Lodge, 227 N.E. Lake Road, in Camas, to discuss what city staff have learned from a year’s worth of water sampling in Lacamas, Round and Fallen Leaf lakes.
City leaders also will give the public a first look at a draft Lake Management Plan and discuss some of possible solutions being proposed to improve the lakes’ water quality.
Camas Public Works Director Steve Wall explained to the Camas City Council this week that the draft management plan for the three lakes was kickstarted in 2020, after near-constant toxic algal blooms plagued Lacamas and Round lakes from April through October.
The city council passed a resolution in 2020 to develop a management plan that would help improve the lakes’ water quality and, council members hoped, prevent the formation of toxic algae that can sicken humans and be fatal to pets and wildlife.
In 2021, Wall said, the city’s consultancy team came on board and began looking at data collected on the lakes’ water quality throughout the past few decades.
“That led to the lake management plan we’re on pace for now,” Wall said. “The plan itself will focus on all three lakes — Lacamas, Round and Fallen Leaf. We wanted to base this on science and have good evidence (so that the) strategies and recommendations we’re going to bring forth are based on sound science and data.”
Wall said the city also needs to rely on partners, including Clark County, the state of Washington and federal agencies.
“We don’t own the lakes,” Wall said Monday. “There are multiple agencies that have to work together to improve the watershed and the lakes themselves. We will have to work with the state, county and our federal partners to truly make changes in the future.”
The state’s Department of Ecology has been testing sites in the Lacamas Creek watershed, which feeds the Camas lakes, which will add data on pollution coming into the lakes from the regional watershed.
Wall said city staff will discuss the water-testing data, which showed higher concentrations of phosphorus in the sediment than the city had found in previous testing, during the July 12 open house.
City staff will bring the lake water-testing findings and Lake Management Plan strategies back to the Camas City Council later this summer and submit the management plan to the state’s ecology department once it has garnered council approval.
To learn more about the city of Camas’ lake management plan process, visit engagecamas.com/lacamas-lake-management-plan.
To learn more about the Lacamas Creek watershed that feeds Camas’ lakes, visit Clark County’s watershed site at tinyurl.com/3zy5nm7s.
