City officials are considering adding more birds to Vets Lake in order to get rid of birds on Vets Lake.
When the Great Bend City Council met Monday night, it heard from Terry Hoff, human resource manager, about continuing discussions on how to address the algae problem in Veterans Memorial Lake.
One issue is the contamination from geese and one solution could be to introduce mute swans.
Hoff said the swans could be available from a zoo in Nebraska and they are very territorial. They tend to be aggressive with other birds and have been used elsewhere to get rid of geese.
It was noted that geese do add to the contamination of the lake. “A single goose will put two to four pounds of waste into that lake in a day’s time,” Hoff reported.
And the lake sees a lot of geese over the course of the year.
The city staff is also continuing efforts to better educate the public whose property drains into the lake, City Engineer Robert Winiecke reported.
It’s important that as little fertilizer and other chemicals as possible get washed into the lake.
In a previous meeting with the council, Kansas Department of Health and Environment official Dan Wells told the council that the blue green algae bacteria lives on phosphorous, which is readily available from a couple of local sources — goose droppings and the run off from local yards where large amounts of fertilizer has been used.
Wells noted that an important part of the solution will be to address the number of geese that are allowed access to the lake.
Also, he noted, it is important for the public to learn not too use too much fertilizer and to use types that will be less likely to run off into the lake.
The bacteria will, without nutrients, eventually die out — but it requires the lack of nutrients.
Wells said chemical treatment is not the answer, that any chemicals that would kill the bacteria would also do damage to the fish in the lake.
In the long run, developing taller grassed wet-land areas where run off would filter in, rather than just dumping into the lake, will be important to keep the phosphorous levels down and that is where the grants could come in.
City and state officials will be researching the grant possibilities and come back to the council, it was noted.
When the council met, it also discussed the option of dredging the lake, but it was noted the facility is large for that operation and there is also the problem of where anything dredged would be dumped.
The city staff is continuing to seek alternative options and will keep reporting to the council.