On Aug. 7 this heron was sitting on the west side of Waverly Lake, where the algae bloom was worst.
“Have you seen the Lake recently?” the email sender asked me on Friday. “Somehow the City investment is not working.”
He was talking about Waverly Lake. As it happened, I had stopped there on a bike ride a couple of days before. And yes, the algae problem at the lake looks just about as bad it was was last summer.
Last year the Albany City Council authorized the parks department to spend $60,000 to try to get the lake at the north entrance to town cleared up.
The city hired a company to “harvest” the vegetation from the lake and install a fountain and several aerators. The growth was cleared away last summer, and the fountain and aerators were installed this March. The investment, as the email put it, ended up to be about $73,000.
A few weeks ago it looked like last year’s treatment had been at least partly successful. The parks department told me they would try to repeat it later this summer.
I haven’t heard whether the plan has changed or whether something else could be tried. We’ll see what happens as the rest of the summer winds down. (hh)
Looking across the western end of Waverly Lake on Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 7, 2024.
A duck found a resting spot surrounded by algae in Waverly Lake.
If they want it to look pretty, give it a daily dose of chlorine. If you want to allow it to be a natural contributing part of our eco system accept it for what it looks like and leave it alone.
Sad thing is, I tried to get them to get me a sample of the algae, but aw they would get back to me. I may have a way to control the algae biological in place. But,
Is it a chiller like Detroit lake put in?
West Thorton Lake, in North Albany looks worse than Waverly. Appears to be a health hazard. Wondering if the City could create an assessment district for those property owners adjacent to the green pond and work toward improving the appearance and bug problems.
$73,000 to rid a pond of some algae? We didn’t get any gaurantee for that? No standing behind their work? Pray the City doesn’t decide to “beautify” it with some concrete and rocks for $20M. There ought to be a contest for most incompetent. Round one: Hiring Mgrs vs Hirees. Is everybody too busy to pay attention to their own job?
We live right next door to “Moo U” Don’t they specialize in Botany, Biology, Ecology and the like? How hard can it be? Maybe hire a couple of Grad Students to sort it out.
Offer a $73,000 prize for best solution to be paid after successful implementation. Sheese!
^ word salad ^
Typical MAGA(t)
More like MWGA. Make Waverly Great Again. Kind of catchy.
Agreed
Your line, “pray the city doesn’t decide to ‘beautify’ it with some concrete and rocks for 20M,” is right on. Love it. Tee, hee!
It is a result of global climate change, no matter what the conservative nutcases (a la Trump) think. And putting a dinky little fountain on the lake and aerators that don’t seem to work hasn’t solved the problem. Yes, they need to hire an outfit to scrape off the algae every year. Not much else can be done, because Albany’s tax money went to the Water Street debacle….and humans have ruined the earth’s atmosphere and ecosystem. The people who sold the aerators and fountain probably thought they would work, but those measures are no match for our hot summers that result from an over-heated planet.
Yo Coffee, I feel your pain but if you’re truely worried about wasting tax money “because Albany’s tax money went to the Water Street debacle” I don’t know that railing about “conservate nutcases” and beating the climate change drum will help.
If Climate Change is your worry then AOC is your friend and she’s definitely not going to be a cheap date. If knocking down every structure in America and building back green sounds good to you then you probly will also be more than happy to “own nothing” as Klaus would have us do. I get that this actually does sound good to some.
The actual history of attempts to implement these ideas is terrifying.
Still many want to try yet again and think they’ll get a different result. God help us.
The hour is late and it’s critical that we be pragmatic.
I never liked gameshow hosts or orange hair….Turns out that I no longer believe I can afford the luxury to be that shallow. (Not calling anyone shallow! except myself!)
Simply trying to see clearly. The economists are saying we here are about to get it in the neck…possibly no matter what we do. But having serious people around sure can’t hurt. Peace, Be well brother.
Oh, so you think it’s best to ignore climate change and let the conservative nutcases take over the country! NOT!
Holicene. interglacial; period. the people who fuss and whine about global warming never, ever discuss the interglacial period we are in. why is that? someone help me out here. $73k to fix the lake issue. it did not work. holding someone accountable is word salad? a MAGA thing?
I’m not MAGA. Far from it.
Never enough money to do things right the first time, so they do them over and over and it costs MANY times more.
Grand Prairie park is the same!
We got a look at Waverly earlier today and I was thinking “what a waste”!
These situations always remind me that we already have a human version of artificial intelligence (“AI”). It is when people do not have the real intelligence (“RI”) to know when something will not work.
Not stopping the paddle boaters…yet. Observed them out & about on the water today 8/10/24.
Maybe progress?
The duck in Hasso’s picture knows Waverly Lake is in bad shape. She is up on a small floating branch, rather than in the water…I mean, algae…as you will notice.
It’s always amusing to me the dozen or so crotcheties on here who are self-appointed experts at every subject. Maybe it’s time for you to get out from behind your keyboards and run for city council so you can share your “common sense” and infinite wisdom with all of us! Pretty sure I saw the filing only takes $5, but I won’t hold my breath.
So, tell me, who appointed you as a know-it-all crotchetie (to use your word), if you weren’t self-appointed. It sure as hell wasn’t God-Almighty.
Oh Mary Brock I never said I was an expert at anything. Plus I’m pretty sure I’d have to have several more decades of birthdays before I can be crotchety. And even with its challenges, I actually like living in my community, unlike the crotcheties who usually comment here.
Who are you speaking of? My name is Coffee.
No, your name is not Coffee. You are just hiding behind a fake name so you can pretend to be an expert on climate change and troll real people. Just one more phony with a keyboard compensating for a lack of actual credibility. Someone claims you are actually Mary Brock, which sounds like a real person — but who hasn’t denied the claim.
If anyone thinks this is bad go over to Simpson park and look at the pond there
Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe it could be a natural occurrence. Its called a Roll Over/Turn Over. Google it. This happens in lake that are fairly shallow, and the water turns warm the bottom of the lake/pond will come to the top and stay there until the temperature of the water changes, gets cooler. This can happen for a few reasons. 2 of the biggest reasons is the lake/pond isn’t very deep and or not a lot of constant flow thru the body of water.
Not sure why Public Works at City of Albany can’t figure it out by now. How many years have they had? How many more will they need?
Why not try applying diluted Copper (Sulfate) and/or Pond Dye for a LOT less than $73K? https://youtu.be/OmjC1fYpKY4?si=W8ohPHUhtUpi84-N
It’s not complicated.
“It’s not complicated.”
Really… Notwithstanding good ole “Joe the Farmer’s” expertise, I’ll suggest the Oregon DEQ sees it differently. Download the Oregon DEQ rules for: “High Algae Blooms” strategy.:
https://www.oregon.gov/deq/FilterDocs/HABstrategy.pdf
Search for “copper sulfate.” Read the ramifications. There’s NO way in heck I would vote to allow that in our water!
Wow, Ray K – You sound like you’re a bone fide copper-sulfate expert all of a sudden, but there’s actually a lot of data out there that might crush your ready-fire-aim ego back to levels closer to those of humble lifelong learners.
Consider what Oregon State University (heard of it?) has to say about the effective agriculture compound – levels of toxicity vs. beneficial applications:
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/archive/cuso4tech.html
Might wanna slow down for once, Ray, and deeply look into things, even if you and your tribe of LOC rubber-stampers have to consult with an actual chemical engineer who can easily recommend an optimal dilution ratio to safely address Waverly Lake’s ongoing algae problem ($73,000 later).
I mean really study an issue before wholly rejecting what could be viable solutions that none of the hive-mind socialists on the council has thought of before, ya know? When armed with an attitude of ever-increasing knowledge, what do you have to lose?
I’ve been called many things, but “hive minded socialist” is a new one. LOL
There are many options – even in the DEQ report. I stand by what I said. (But I only get one vote…)
Your DEQ report has been published for 13 years, Ray. How much more time will be needed for City of Albany to actually prove that it knows what it’s doing when combating the effects of Waverly Lake’s floating brown trout?
I’d like to know why the bid process was waived, and a special contract awarded to this out-of-state company in particular (resolution #7208). What were the vendor decision criteria? Which expert came up with & judged the criteria to select the vendor?
Great questions, in need of transparent answers from Albany’s city manager where the proverbial buck ultimately stops.
You making fun of farmers now, Ray? What’s with saying “Good ‘ol Joe The Farmer”?
i seem to be a expert at asking liberals questions they lip dance out of
What question did you ask? I don’t see your name typed below any comments to this blog post about Waverly Lake’s algae.
july 26 2024 3 rent increases, cost of groceries, the power bill, gasoline, the cost of everything has increased dramatically. …and i should not vote for trump? because of the homeless situation? $2.18 for a head of lettuce at walmart. tips getting taxed, we have a number of underage girls molested and or killed by migrants. how about that 12 year old? we were suppose to forget about that. electric cars, ya cant bump start or jump start them. or take a gallon of gas to them. ya gotta tow them. they will be parked in fields, behind barns, in 5 years. mark my words on that. they wont be worth towing. the afganistan blunder that cost us 13? american lives. and budweiser. one ad by a transexual person cost budweiser BILLIONS of dollars. and bud light is no longer americas number one beer. …and i should not vote for trump due to the homeless situation?
Gawd! I’m sorry I asked.
As of Sept. 6 Waverly Lake appears to be free from algae. I wonder what they did to fix the problem.
This should explain it: https://hh-today.com/clearing-algae-waverly-lake-looks-good/