At Monday night’s Great Bend City Council meeting, Dan Wells and Doug Schneweis from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment talked about the blue green algae bloom problem in Veterans Lake in Great Bend. They presented some ideas of how to potentially keep the algae bloom from getting worse. They explained that phosphorus is the main source of nutrients for the algae, which could be caused by a number of things, including feces from geese, or the fertilizer that runs into the lake from surrounding properties. Dan Wells says one option to begin fixing the problem could be public education.

Wells also went over some possible short-term solutions for the algae bloom. He says Kansas Wildlife and Parks will be experimenting with a few potential solutions in Lake Meade, another lake in Kansas that is experiencing a Blue Green Algae problem. He said they plan to grow a Wetland, allowing the grass to grow taller to filter out some of the nutrients that go into the lake through its rain runoff. They are also planting floating gardens that consists of different vegetation that uses the nutrients at a faster rate than the blue green algae.

Wells added that if the City decided to let the grass grow around the lake, that could also keep some of the geese away, because they aren’t able to see as far and recognize predators as easily, making them feel less safe. The Great Bend City Council will discuss the algae bloom issue later on.