Consultants presented a freshwater harmful-algae (cyanobacteria) management plan for the City of Ocean Shores and a companion stormwater utility rate study that models how the city could pay for the plan.

Katie Rodriguez, a scientist with Herrera Environmental Consultants, said the plan divides the city’s canals and lakes into nine management units and recommends continuing monitoring, expanding communications, and a mix of in-water controls and watershed actions. "We think that this is coming in from ancient buried peatlands beneath the city of Ocean Shores," Rodriguez said, describing consultants' conclusion that groundwater phosphorus — naturally leaching from buried peatlands and connected to surface waters because of permeable soils — is the largest nutrient source driving blooms.

The plan’s nut graf: consultants recommended a combined program of regular bloom surveillance and water-quality monitoring; clearer public communications and reporting; targeted in-water treatments (mixing/circulation, oxygenation, phosphorus inactivation such as alum, and limited algaecide use); and continued watershed work (sewer and stormwater improvements, reduced fertilizer use, shoreline plantings). The plan presents three “levels of service” with different mixes of actions and costs, and an adaptive-management approach that allows pilot testing of technologies.

Major findings and policy goals

Consultants reported 2024 monitoring results showing the waterways are largely eutrophic to hyper‑eutrophic, with higher cyanobacteria and at least one exceedance of Washington State guidelines for microcystin. Rodriguez summarized systemwide objectives: reduce the number of years with blooms to fewer than two in each 10‑year period (based on Washington State Department of Ecology listing criteria for harmful algal bloom–impaired waters) and reduce summertime chlorophyll a to below about 24 parts per billion in target areas.

Monitoring and public communications are central recommendations. Herrera recommended weekly summer bloom surveillance across the nine management units, routine water‑quality sampling (chlorophyll, phosphorus, temperature, dissolved oxygen), and a communications plan so residents and visitors know where to find toxin advisories and how to report blooms. Rodriguez noted the city has posted a city webpage titled “Algae Awareness: What You Need to Know.”

In‑water and watershed strategies

Because consultants concluded groundwater is a dominant phosphorus source, they emphasized in‑water mitigation where feasible. Recommended in‑water measures include surface circulation devices to disrupt buoyant cyanobacteria, bottom oxygenation/aeration to limit phosphorus release from sediments, periodic alum or lanthanum-based phosphorus inactivation treatments, short-term algaecide applications in limited areas, and selective dredging only with careful evaluation. Rodriguez cautioned that dredging could increase groundwater–surface water interactions and potentially worsen phosphorus inputs in this system.

Level-of-service options and cost estimates

The plan offers three levels of service averaged over 20 years: a low level (basic monitoring plus circulation in a few units) with an average annual cost of about $41,000; a moderate level that adds trophic‑state monitoring, city communications, alum treatments in several units and algaecide for Fishhook Canal, at about $350,000 per year on average; and a high level that adds watershed retrofit projects and an oxygenation system at Lake Menard, at roughly $570,000 per year on average. The plan identifies pilot opportunities (nanobubbles, sonication, shading dyes) and recommends adaptive trials before wide deployment.

Stormwater utility rate study

John Guillarducci of FCS presented a multi‑year revenue plan for the city’s stormwater utility to fund the plan. Key financial facts in the presentation: Ocean Shores’ stormwater utility had a sizeable ending fund balance entering 2025 (reported as about $1.34 million at end of 2024 and a beginning 2025 balance above $2 million), and the city had been receiving a general‑fund transfer to the stormwater utility of roughly $570,000 in 2024 that consultants said will stop. "That general fund transfer is going to stop," Guillarducci said, and the study assumes the transfer will not continue.

FCS modeled rate paths that use the existing cash balance to smooth initial costs while increasing rate revenues over time. For the low level of service, the study shows a steady 3.5% annual rate increase; for the moderate level, 8% per year through the early 2030s then 3.5% thereafter; and for the high level, larger increases (about 14.5% per year for three years) before returning to 3.5% inflationary increases. Because Ocean Shores’ current rate is relatively low (the study noted a representative monthly bill of about $5.40 for an 8,000‑square‑foot lot), the consultants reported the modeled scenarios still keep a typical single‑family monthly bill under about $10 per month by 2034 under the modeled assumptions.

Grants, uncertainty and next steps

Both Herrera and FCS said many capital projects in the higher service scenarios assume grant funding; the rate forecasts assume projects will not proceed without grants. Guillarducci said city staff and consultants modeled grants where appropriate and used fund balance to reduce near‑term rate shocks. Consultants urged continued monitoring to check progress toward the objectives and pilot studies to test technologies in representative management units.

Community questions recorded during the meeting covered how long algaecide effects last (Rodriguez: days to weeks depending on location and flow), applicator licensing and permitting requirements (an applicator’s license and permits are required), and the expected longevity of alum treatments (Rodriguez: alum can last multiple years and, in some systems, up to 10–20 years; in Ocean Shores recurring treatments are likely because of high phosphorus loads). Resident questions also probed the scope of stormwater responsibilities beyond fresh waterways and the city’s accounting of transfers into the utility fund.

What the meeting did not decide

The town‑hall format presented the plan and the rate study and took public questions. The consultants and staff did not take a formal council vote at the session. FCS noted the rate study will be presented to the City Council; Guillarducci said the multi‑year revenue plan is intended to provide options and that staff will return to council with recommendations. No formal actions were recorded during this meeting.

Ending

Herrera and FCS recommended the city proceed with the work program that matches the council’s tolerance for cost and complexity: continue monitoring and public communication immediately, pursue targeted in‑water and watershed measures, pursue grants for capital projects, and pilot promising technologies in defined management units while tracking outcomes against the plan’s stated management goals.