If you ask Karen Toreson to describe the water in Liberty Lake 40 years ago, she will say it was not a pleasant sight. Blue-green algae covered the surface, and a certain odor lingered in the air.

"You certainly didn't want to swim in the lake," said Toreson, who has lived on the southwest side of the lake since 1972. At that time, many people around the lake were using septic tanks because there wasn't a complete sewer system.

Toreson and other lake property owners decided they needed to take action to improve the lake's condition.

So the Liberty Lake Property Owner's Association contacted Washington State University to conduct research on the lake. They learned about water-quality issues. They applied for grants and conducted campaigns to educate people in the community.

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It was the start of a large-scale restoration project for Liberty Lake.

Now, 40 years later, the water clarity has improved, and the lake is used in the summertime by boaters and swimmers.

The protection of the lake and surrounding watershed, however, is just one chapter in the ongoing story of Liberty Lake. Although many residents became aware of the aging process of the lake during the initial restoration project four decades ago, the story began many, many years before that.

To trace the origins of the lake, you have to go back to the end of the last ice age when a catastrophic flood sculpted the landscape of much of the Pacific Northwest. Geologists believe that an ice sheet came down from Canada and created a dam more than 2,000 feet tall that collected water in western Montana and formed Glacial Lake Missoula.

Weakened over time by the rising water, the dam eventually burst, causing floodwaters to carry ice that tore away topsoil and mountainsides. The flood deposits of Glacial Lake Missoula dammed the local creek, creating what now is Liberty Lake.

Fast-forward several thousand years to the Homestead Act of 1862, when many settlers came to the area and claimed free land from the government. The lake was named after a French homesteader, Stephen Liberty, who settled on the west side of the lake. Resorts eventually popped up along the lake with numerous entertainment and recreation offerings, giving Liberty Lake the nickname of "Spokane's Inland Seashore."

But the activity - and lack of safeguards - soon took a toll on the lake's health and natural beauty.

During the 1960s, residents around the lake became concerned with the number of blue-green algae blooms and contracted with WSU to test the water quality of the lake.

The team from WSU, led by Dr. Bill Funk, determined that excess phosphorous in the lake was driving the increased algae. Besides compromising the clarity of the water, the blooms can be toxic to fish, humans and other life forms.

The WSU team found one of the main sources was human waste leaking through failing septic systems along the lake. The nutrients in the water led to increased "eutrophication," or the speeding up of the natural aging process of the lake, to the point where it could have eventually become a wetland.

In 1973, citizens voted to create the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District to restore the lake. The district received both federal and state grants to fund the restoration of the lake, including the construction of a complete sewer system.

Toreson worked on several campaigns to promote the development of a new sewer system, and her husband Skip Toreson was one of the original sewer commissioners who served several terms.

"Because of the education and information (provided by the campaigns), citizens around the lake were very much in favor of creating a sewer district," Karen Toreson said. "They voted in support of taxes to build the system. We even had a ‘Sewer Ball' at one of our neighbor's night spots where everyone was invited to celebrate."

From 1976 to 1984, a variety of improvements were made, including the construction of a new sewer system and wastewater treatment plant, measures to control flushing of the marsh, dredging of the lake bottom and one of the country's first alum treatments. Alum is a nontoxic material used to reduce phosphorus levels and limit the production of algae.

The community of Liberty Lake was on the cutting edge of dealing with water-quality issues at the time, said Dr. Barry Moore, a WSU associate professor of natural resource sciences who took over for Funk when he retired.

"And they've led not just on a scientific front, but they've been a leading force in educating the community," Moore said.

In 2001, the district hired BiJay Adams as the water resource and lake protection manager. He is responsible for stormwater management, in-lake monitoring and community education.

In the time since the community began its efforts, the lake now has moved from the "eutrophic" to the "mesotrophic" range, which is a healthy standing, Adams said. That means the lake has fairly clear water with a reasonable amount of algae, capable of supporting moderate populations of plants, fish and wildlife.

In addition to caring for the lake itself, the watershed - or the area surrounding the lake that drains into it - also needs attention, especially because of its connection to the area's drinking water, Adams said.

Once water enters the lake from the watershed, it filters into the Spokane-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to more than 400,000 people in the Spokane area. Liberty Lake contributes 325,851 gallons of water per year to the aquifer, enough to support 11,600 suburban households annually.

The Watershed Advisory Committee, whose membership includes Toreson, Moore and Adams, strives to educate the community in watershed protection. The committee distributes educational materials, teaches classes in the community and publishes advertisements called "Watershed Watch" in The Splash.

In addition, the Kids in the Creek program, part of Central Valley School District's Environmental Education Program, educates fifth-graders each spring on the fundamentals of watershed protection and water quality.

"Community involvement is imperative to maintaining a healthy lake," Toreson said. "Individual efforts such as building appropriately, fertilizer use, discharge into the lake and water usage all impact our lake."

Toreson and others on the committee say they believe that ongoing education is key to maintaining the health of the lake.

"My impression is that the water quality of Liberty Lake is among the best in the region, especially for being a heavily developed lake," Moore said. "The commitment of people in the community to water quality is high, and it always has been."

Profiles:
Liberty Lake

Miles of shoreline
5

Size in acres
710

Greatest depth
30 feet

Popular species of fish in lake
Rainbow Trout, Largemouth Bass, Walleye and Catfish

LLSWD formed in
1973