Big Lake discusses cleaning up its act

BIG LAKE — Expect conversations about clean boating tips at boat launches this summer, and maybe a few cars bearing bumper stickers supporting keeping the lake clean.

The Big Lake Community Council is working with Agnew Beck consultant Shelly Wade to come up with a plan for how to address water quality in the lake.

In 2004, 2005 and 2009, the state tested the lake’s water and found Big Lake to be an impaired water body. One of the main culprits — hydrocarbons in the form of fuel and engine oil — is the focus of the current lake cleanliness plan. The other likely culprit — septic tanks — will require a different solution.

“The places where we see impaired water body statuses go away is really where the community takes the lead,” she said.

Wade said the biggest source of hydrocarbons seems to be boat launches.

The nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper is onboard. Inletkeeper can and does apply for grant funding a community council can’t.

Rachel Lord, who works with Inletkeeper’s clean harbors program, said she’s been doing good work with Burkshore Marina. She’s gotten marina collars to put on fuel hoses, pads to hand out to boaters and a fancy burner to dispose of them.

At a community council meeting Wednesday, she brought up an idea the group working on clean boating came up with — launch hosts.

“High-use weekends is when we’re seeing these excedences,” she said.

The idea is to have people on site at the launches during those big boating weekends — Memorial Day, Fourth of July — to dispense tips and maybe some hydrocarbon-absorbing goodies.

As for the tips:

• A bilge pad in a boat can hold more than a quart of engine oil.

• Don’t idle your engine, especially a two-stroke engine, if you don’t have to.

• Pull bilge plugs out away from the boat launch ramp. Bilge water usually contains hydrocarbons. Dumping it on the ramp sends it back into the lake.

Community Council President Bill Kramer said he thinks one-on-one interactions, such as a launch host, is the way to go.

“Actual interaction with people putting in and pulling out of the water — that’s going to be 90 percent of your education right there,” he said.

Another idea Wade and Lord mentioned is to distribute a modified version of a sticker the Big Lake Chamber of Commerce designed.

The idea is to hand out the stickers at events, maybe have stacks of them along with tips on boating literature at boat shops and gas stations; places where folks are likely to stop on the way to the lake.

On the Kenai Peninsula, a buyback program targeting inefficient two-stroke engines was very successful in nudging boaters to upgrade to cleaner four-stroke engines.

“I’ve got a couple I’d love to sell you,” said Big Lake resident Cindy Bettine.

But funding is an issue. In Kenai, it was an Alaska Native tribe that got a grant for the program.

“I am continually looking for funding sources for a buyback program,” said Cindy Gilder of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The bottom line, Kramer asked, is how long is it going to take to get off this impaired water body list?

Gilder said it’s going to take years. The lake needs two years of clean tests to get off the list.

“It takes two get on the list, it takes two to get off,” she said.