Polson commissioners hear plan for reducing E. coli in Flathead Lake

Representatives from the Flathead Lakers and the Polson Bay Golf Course presented a plan to the Polson City Commission last month to reduce stormwater runoff, which had caused increased levels of E. coli in Flathead Lake near Boettcher Park.  

Coby Gierke, the executive director of Flathead Lakers, said they have been monitoring water quality weekly since 2017, and Boettcher is one of their “problem children.” He noted that this area tests above the healthy standard thresholds for E. coli, a bacteria that can cause digestive issues in humans. 

The increased levels of nutrients and bacteria have also caused an algal bloom and swimmers' itch. These levels are caused by upstream water flow from the irrigation canals and a goose population on the golf course, according to Gierke.  

The Lakers, along with Polson Bay Golf Course, are creating a public-private partnership to reduce pollution and improve filtration. This project includes continuing to monitor water quality and levels of nitrogen, phosphate and pesticides.  

Gierke noted that they have hired landscape architects to help craft retention ponds and bioretention swales above the course’s maintenance shop and redevelop outlets to create a meandering creek that flows to the pond.  

The Lakers started out as a homeowners association and changed to a nonprofit many years ago to focus on the water quality of the Flathead Watershed. They have worked on other shoreline protection projects for the lake, including projects that involved cities and private landowners.  

Gierke explained that they have good partners on this project, including the Flathead Lake Biological Station and other private labs in Kalispell. He also said this is a project that Pat Nowlen, the golf superintendent, and his team could not undertake without the Lakers grants and private donations. He said at the Feb. 17 Golf Advisory Board meeting that they plan to invest over $150,000 of private money into this project.  

“We can't just throw Pat and his team under the bus here and say, ‘you golfers and your fertilizers.’ There's a lot of stuff that's coming in through the canal, and that's the irrigation source for the golf course,” Gierke said. “It ends up on the golf course and then in the lake, and this is an opportunity to address that as well.”  

Nowlen explained that the Old Nine was constructed in 1936, and that golf course architecture has come a long way since then, with engineered basins and filtration systems. Nowlen said they do not apply pesticides to the course, but mercury was applied to the course in the 1960s, and that has not reached the lake. 

“So this has been a fun process, and it's going to address a lot of issues,” Nowlen said.  

Commissioner Tracie McDonald asked Gierke whether they have a system for notifying the public of water quality levels. Gierke explained that they work with a third-party nonprofit, Swim Guide, to communicate water conditions.