Karen Shuey / The Reading Eagle
Blue Marsh Lake has many functions.
The reservoir provides recreational opportunities. It supports the water supply needs for the region. It helps reduce the risk of local streams and creeks flooding.
And because of all of that, a lot of stakeholders are deeply invested in promoting and protecting the Berks County gem.
Those stakeholders got together to talk about some of the issues surrounding Blue Marsh. U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Montgomery County Democrat whose district covers the lake, recently held a roundtable discussion about the man-made reservoir.
County and state officials, along with those representing community organizations and regional agencies, took a tour of the Blue Marsh reservoir before gathering for a deeper conversation about the importance of the lake.
“We are trustees of this space,” Dean said. “And it is our responsibility to take care of this place and protect the resources that we have.”
Construction of Blue Marsh Lake was completed by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1979. The dam was authorized by Congress for flood control, water supply, water quality and recreation.
The dam, located on the Tulpehocken Creek, has prevented more than $125 million in flood damages. The project provides flood risk management benefits primarily for the Reading, Birdsboro and Pottstown areas.
It also serves as a water supply, and water quality management practices at Blue Marsh benefit areas further downstream like Philadelphia.
While the main purpose of Blue Marsh was to provide flood control to part of the Schuylkill River valley, over the years the lake has become a recreational hotspot. With more than 36 miles of trails, 6,200 acres of land, 1,100 acres of water, picnic areas, a small beach and boat launches.
The recreation program at the site attracts nearly 1 million visitors each year.
Scott Sunderland, park manager, said that in 2021 visitors spent more than $43 million within 30 miles of the lake.
The discussion about the lake Thursday covered a lot of ground, but a few topics stood above the rest. Chief among them were concerns that not enough people know about all of the recreational opportunities Blue Marsh provides.
Getting the word out
Despite all it has to offer and the number of visitors it sees, local officials said they have found that not enough of the local community knows about Blue Marsh Lake.
State Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz said that is particularly the case with the region’s Latino population.
“I think that our community members, oftentimes, aren’t exposed to our outdoor spaces,” she said. “They don’t know the opportunities, therefore they don’t seek them out. Sometimes we don’t do enough to connect our diverse community to the resources.
“How are we marketing to our culturally diverse communities?”
Sunderland said there is an ongoing effort to share information about Blue Marsh with anyone and everyone who will listen. But that effort has proved difficult.
“We have been working hard the past couple of years,” he said. “We tried partnering with Reading Area Community College to get summer employees, and we worked with Centro Hispano and the Reading Recreation Commission to get our materials translated into Spanish and into the hands of students. But we haven’t seen much of an impact.”
Sunderland said Blue Marsh officials are also trying to spread the word via the social media and community groups that focus on outdoor recreation.
“We do have a pretty robust social media presence, but that only gets to those who are actively seeking that information,” he said. “We are also working with the Berks Area Mountain Biking Association and the Pennsylvania Equine Council to help spread the word about our trails.”
Brendan Lederer, assistant director of Berks County Parks and Recreation Department, said he has noticed that transportation to recreational areas can be a barrier to overcome, particularly for those who live in Reading.
Cepeda-Freytiz said reaching her constituents means being in their space. She suggested offering bus trips to Blue Marsh, noting that may help overcome the problem of people lacking access to transportation.
Elaine Schaefer, executive director of the Schuylkill River Greenways, said it isn’t just Blue Marsh that has struggled with diversity.
“The entire industry of recreation, parks and trails, is struggling with how to get a more diverse population to enjoy our natural resources,” she said. “We’ve seen that even small things make a big difference like having signs in Spanish. It’s just a gesture that lets people know that everyone is welcome.”
Schaefer said that continuing efforts to reach a diverse population are critical.
“This is exactly what we do, we connect people and communities,” she said. “It’s an economic activity to support the revitalization of our communities, but there is also an ulterior motive because once people get connected to the river and natural resources they become stewards. They start to really care.”
Dean agreed that diversifying the visitors to the lake is an important endeavor.
“The more we connect communities in that way is a good thing,” she said. “Creating equitable recreational opportunities is very important.”
Addressing challenges
Along with trying to get the word out about Blue Marsh, there are other challenges for those tasked with tending to the lake.
Over the past several years, the beach area has had to be shut down due to toxic blue-green algae blooms, or cyanobacteria.
Brianna Treichler, the natural resource specialist at Blue Marsh, explained that these microscopic organisms are found naturally in all types of water. But it can become dangerous when it reaches certain levels, which usually occur in warm environments after heavy rainfall and significant runoff brings nutrients into the lake.
She said Blue Marsh officials are working with local watershed organizations to examine what nutrients are coming into the lake and with a company that tackles fighting algae blooms.
The company produces a device that uses an electromagnetic frequency to help increase oxygen levels in the water, which will dissolve the algae faster and prevent the bacteria from building up.
The blooms cause a problem for recreation but do not impact the safety of the water supply from the lake. Chip Bilger, executive director of the Western Berks Water Authority, said the normal treatment of the water makes it safe to drink.
Despite the algae blooms not causing issues for the water supply, officials from the authority said there are concerns about other contaminants in the lake.
“The whole conversation about emerging contaminants is real,” Bilger said.
Bilger said Blue Marsh has been dealing with man-made chemicals that include perfluorooctane sulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic acid. These do not break down in the environment, can move through soils and contaminate drinking water sources, and build up in fish and wildlife.
“These ‘forever chemicals’ are here and they are in this water,” Bilger said. “We know it, people downstream know it. Multiple water plants draw their drinking water from this water, so it’s critical they understand that.”
The chemicals are used in agriculture, and local officials have had success in alerting them to the problem.
“The effort on getting farmers the information they need to understand water quality issues has been fantastic, and there have been a lot of partners that have helped to make that happen,” Bilger said.
Bilger said the issue of forever chemicals isn’t a critical one at this point — levels are low enough that the authority can still provide safe water — but it could be down the road. And tackling it should be a major priority, he said.
“People want to come here for recreation, but the bottom line is that a lot of people drink this water,” he said.
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