The City of Lakewood assists with monitoring invasive species, water levels and water quality in American Lake and Waughop Lake. It does not assist with any other lakes in the city.
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American Lake
American Lake is overseen by the American Lake – Lake Management District Advisory Committee. This committee is made up of residents who live on the lake and advise City Council on matters involving the lake.
Milfoil
Milfoil is the target invasive weed that is primarily addressed by the American Lake Management District. Milfoil can be identified its arrangements of 1 to 1.5-inch leaves in groups of four around the stems. The stems are reddish and near the surface of the water create flower spikes with small pinkish flowers. Milfoil plants root at the bottom of a body of water and grow mostly underwater.
Below are photos of before and after treatment. The above three photos are before treatment and the bottom three are the same locations after treatment. Note: this was a Milfoil only treatment. There are still native aquatic plants living in the lake.
The map shows the areas that were treated.
This herbicide treatment is regulated under a permit issued by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Permit No. WAG994427.
Documents
All documents below are in PDF format
Waughop Lake
The city received an approved Aquatic Plant and Algae Management general permit from the state Department of Ecology to apply alum to Waughop lake. This was done to remove phosphorus from the water column to mitigate toxic cyanobacteria blooms.
The city hired HAB Aquatic Solutions to do the first two Alum applications in 2020, with a third application in the summer of 2023 by Solitude Lake Management. The City has monitored and reported on the lake conditions from 2019 through 2024 to meet the WA ECY permit requirements. The testing and monitoring of the lake to date is summarized in the Waughop Lake Data Summary and Report Memo (PDF). At this time the City will continue to monitor the lake condition related to cyanobacteria blooms and evaluate if further treatment needs are warranted.