American Lake Management District #1

The Washington Open Public Meetings Act requires that the public be allowed to observe all meetings held by public entities. They don't always have the opportunity to comment at the meetings however. The agendas must be posted ahead of time. Minutes from meetings will not be published until they have been approved by the Boards that are holding the meetings. 

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A quorum of Board members may not meet together or respond to other meetings on e-mail threads. These communications of a quorum can be considered public meetings which the public has rights to hear. Demands for e-mail review that may have been in violation are very time consuming for public employees. Recently there have been multiple lawsuits against municipalities and other public entities over the Open Public Meetings Act procedures.  Even though fines for violations are not very high, the court costs are astronomical. The court costs of litigating these accusations through the judicial system is overwhelming. Currently the State of Washington has accrued over $14M in legal costs. 

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The City of Lakewood strictly follows the rules concerning Open Public Meetings. While the procedures may be cumbersome and time consuming, eventually the purposes of the public meetings can be met. An understanding of the current concern over the Open Public Meetings Act threats is unfortunately necessary and requires patience on behalf of lakeshore owners. 

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The LMD meeting of Sept. 3, 2026 made progress on many fronts. Having received a summary of the two listening sessions, they set priorities for the rest of the current LMD cycle. Of major importance was beginning work on the procedure for the new LMD when this one sunsets in 2028. From their experience in the last 8 years, they feel this lake is best served by an LMD rather than being left with no management plan at all. They will send a letter immediately to the City Council recommending a new LMD be put into place in 2028 with details of the plan to follow the letter. This notifies the City Council of their intentions. A new LMD proposal will be sent out to voters eventually. According to the present RCW it is not lawful to simply roll this LMD over to a new session.

They reviewed the budget and determined if the acres of milfoil to be treated remains like it was in 2026, there may be extra funding for treating something else in 2027. They determined spot treating thick patches of filamentous algae and native noxious aquatic plants would be first priority for these funds. Collecting data about the location of groundwater vents and working with a university scientist to design nutrient sampling protocol will be done during this fall, winter and spring. Volunteer monitors are being trained in how to do the collecting. Water sample evaluation will be done monthly, with periodic check evaluations done at a professional laboratory to corroborate findings. This data will help build a baseline of information that will be needed for making decisions for controlling Hazardous Algal Blooms and bringing the lake water back into balance.

The LMD will be working on revising their work plans to include the ability to address various concerns about water quality, including invasive animals such as invasive freshwater mussels. They support the efforts of lakeshore owners in reaching out to the Parks Dept. for assistance in signage at the boat launches concerning spreading invasive species.

They determined to put more effort into educating the lakeshore owners about how the LMD functions and the chemical, biological and geological dynamics in the lake. Two members of the LMD are available to meet with any homeowners or HOAs that wish to learn about American Lake. They are joining the Washington Lakes Protective Association (WALPA) as a way of increasing their resources and knowledge base.

The LMD is determined to work with the City in following the Open Public Meetings Act requirements. They now have regular meetings scheduled on the first Thursday of every month. The meetings are open to the public and will follow the standard procedure of soliciting public comments at the beginning of the meeting. Since these are not “special meetings” they will not need to adhere strictly to a published agenda.

They will be working to get something like an interlocal agreement with JBLM, the Veterans’ Hospital and Camp Murray to keep receiving funding for the large section of shoreline controlled by these public entities.

There is no approved list of aquatic applicators that can be used by the City. The current path to getting another applicator on the list is for applicators to respond to Requests For Proposals. Most lakes our size and smaller have one applicator who manages the lake. Lake Washington has several. Decisions about additional applicators will be considered in the details of the plan for the new LMD.

It seems after the petition, public open meetings and listening sessions, some forward progress is being made in managing the lake water quality. Looking to the future, tax rates may need to be increased to achieve the results we want to see. Other lakes around us pay much higher shoreline frontage rates.

We have been fortunate that our lake is deeper and larger than neighboring lakes. Thirty years ago, the American Lake Improvement Club members determined they would not pay for maintaining water quality since they were not the ones responsible for the nutrient pollution. That left American Lake without the possibility of the ALIC being “grandfathered in” when the State gave lake quality management responsibility to the shoreline owners under the RCW (revised code of Washington). But this generation has proven we take a different outlook toward stewardship for the future.

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