Tulsa resident raises concerns about city’s water quality dashboard

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) With the opening of Zinc Lake just months away over Labor Day weekend, the city began promoting it as the Big Dam Party, with artwork featuring people paddling on the water. But one person who won’t be celebrating is Charles Pratt.

“You wouldn’t let your family in there,” he asked News Channel 8. “Not because I know historically today it could be green and tomorrow it could be ten times the legal limit,” he said.

An electrical engineer, Pratt will make a presentation to the city council Wednesday detailing his concerns with the current setup of the city’s recently launched water quality dashboard.

“What they have so far is not usable for the general public to really decide if it’s safe. And it can be really misinterpreted,” he said.

Take for example the use of green and red color display in the geometric mean for E. coli. Think green means the all clear? Think again says Pratt.

“When it’s on the green, let’s say it’s on the top of the green, what that means statistically from medical studies is that if there were 100 people out there recreating at Zinc Lake on a given day, surf and things where they can fall into the water and eat some water, nine of them will get sick,” he said.

Pratt says the data on the dashboard is historical, but not predictive, to let you know exactly what the water quality will be when you hit the river. And it will take time to do that.

“It would take years to collect data to build a model, just like meteorologists,” he said.

But the city says, “That’s exactly why we’re testing now, and have been doing for the last few months, so we can create models using historical data and current conditions like turbidity and specific conductivity to then have data that is more predictive. . . In the last 30 days, we have learned a lot about E-coli levels in water bodies after heavy rain events.”

“They won’t have enough data until Labor Day to predict water quality,” Pratt said.

As for trying to share his knowledge with the city up until this point, it’s basically been like swimming upstream.

“There is no easy way on the website, on the control panel it says contact the city and go to 3-1-1. Well, I emailed 3-1-1, I don’t even get a response to acknowledge that they got it or is doing something about it, so there’s really no good public input.”

Here is the city’s response to the presentation of Mr. Pratt;

The main thing to note is that we are continuing to test and adjust our water quality plan as guaranteed. As we’ve said from the beginning, we’re taking an adaptive approach to this plan.

We’d like to address a few points being made in PowerPoint to provide some clarity:

Enterococci bacteria levels are missing – The primary purpose of collecting water samples for Fecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB) analysis is to assess the health risks to users of Zinc Lake and we use E. coli for this purpose. E. coli is a standard indicator that has reliable and consistent laboratory results, and regulatory agencies are moving away from Enterococci. Although we initially tested for both, we have moved away from testing for Enterococci on the advice of our consultant for this very reason.

There is no data listing the hydrocarbons and other chemicals of concern that will be included in the testing – Hydrocarbon data and chemical data (cadmium) are included in the testing and are located in the dashboard under the Resources tab, with results so far in green shown below distinct limits for all tested parameters.

Data such as oxygen levels and pH are great for knowing if you are fish or in treated water like a swimming pool, but are of little use in the decision to enter the water – Oxygen and pH are important indicators that help in giving a picture of water quality. It is very important to monitor trends regarding each, as both affect the aquatic wildlife and health of Zinc Lake. For example, in the summer months, we want people to know what the dissolved oxygen levels are, as something like a fish kill would influence their choice to recreate in the lake more. No one wants a dead lake and we were doing everything we could to see how it was doing and take steps to help prevent that from happening.

Current data is historical, but not predictive! That’s exactly why we’re testing now, and have been doing for the last few months, so that we can create models using historical data and current conditions like turbidity and specific conductivity to then have data that is more predictive. For example, if we notice that E-coli levels are high two days after a heavy rain event, and we notice trends in turbidity in the same window, then we can use something like the turbidity data to make predictions that what the water quality might be. at any given time due to weather conditions and recent rain events. In the last 30 days, we have learned a lot about E-coli levels in water bodies after heavy rain events. We’ve seen that when we have a lot of rain, E-coli levels go up, and then after a period of little or no rain, those levels go down. This is a phenomenon that occurs in all bodies of water across the state, and our testing at Zinc Lake is confirming this.

Simply sharing data with the public is not enough for them to know if it will be safe when I’m there The more data people have about anything, the more informed decisions they can make. It’s important to note that no one in the state of Oklahoma has these types of records when they jump into any lake, yet many people every weekend don’t think twice about their lake activities. Not only is this data unique to the state, but it also helps us create models that we can then use to create advice that can help people make even more informed decisions. Since the water quality program is the first of its kind in the state, the city will continue to improve the dashboard for public use as it approaches opening weekend. The City Experience Department also has upcoming community meetings and events planned around educating the community about Zinc Lake. As stated above, this is an adaptive water quality plan. The lake isn’t open yet, and we’re not done modeling the data and creating additional educational pieces for Tulsans.