Lily Lake Property Owners Want More Answers Before Lake is Blamed for Deaths

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For families who live on the potentially-premature "diagnosis" as a deadly-amoeba infested body of water leaves more unanswered questions than solutions.

The small lake in town is being denoted by state and county departments as the source of the common  Naegleria microorganism which caused the rare and fatal Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM)), a form of meningitis, in two local children over the last two years.

Most recently, 9-year-old was taken off life support on Tuesday and two years ago 7-year-old Annie Bahneman, died of the same infection. Bahneman was the northern-most case of the 125 reported in the country since 1962.

Now, the label "rare" feels inaccurate. Those feelings contradict what lake shore property owners are feeling.

"Until Washington County Department of Health decides what to do with the lake and if and how the two deaths are indeed linked to the lake I don’t have an opinion," said Bob Turrentine, who has lived on the lake since 1992.

For Ronald Schoenborn, whose porch overlooks the lake, a lack of proof coupled with the reported "rarity" of the two cases leaves a lot of holes.

"Nothing is proven. These are the first two cases in the north and there have been only a hundred and some in the last so many years. A lot more people have been stuck by lighting in that time," he said.

Turrentine’s wife, Linda, said because the first case was thought to be so rare not much neighborhood worry was dedicated to the lake and it wasn’t even identified as the most-likely source – just one of the places the young girl swam before she died.

"How are they sure it’s from Lily if it’s a common organism and the kids both swam other places," she posed.

Bob Turrentine said he wanted to understand the science behind Naegleria before making any conclusions.

Richard Danila, Minnesota Department of Health assistant state epidemiologist, explained Lily Lake was the likely culprit because of its physical attributes and facts scientists know about Naegleria. Namely, it thrives in warmer water of smaller, shallow lakes where the water flow is minimal.

According to WebMD:

Amoebas are single-celled organisms. The so-called brain-eating amoeba is a species discovered in 1965 and formally named Naegleria fowleri …Like other amoebas, Naegleria reproduce by cell division. When conditions are less than optimal, amoebas become inactive cysts. When conditions are favorable, the cysts turn into trophozoites -- their feeding form. These trophozoites can also temporarily grow tails that allow them to swim. In this tailed form they cannot eat, so they soon revert to the trophozoite stage.

The lake, Schoenbor’s wife Nadine said, has changed since she, her husband, and their eight children moved into the lake home in 1977.

"The lake never used to be like this," she said standing in her driveway looking at the empty lake. "We didn’t have these brown weeds, there was some algae, but not like this – it’s way worse than it was."

Schoenborns said their children swam in the lake when they were growing up without incident and Turrentine family said while they didn’t purchase the property with the intent of swimming in the lake, their grandchildren had recently been around the water.

For now, even if there was no police order to not swim in the lake, the families won’t be diving in this summer.

While jury is still out regarding a definitive source of the disease, these Lily Lake families are taking no risks by swimming in the lake.

"It should be closed for the rest of this year until they know more and then make decisions about what can be done to avoid more deaths in the future," Ronald Schoenborn said.

His neighbor agreed.

"Until there are some answers I certainly don’t want my grandchildren in the lake. The risks of swimming in Lily Lake outweigh the benefits – especially when there are other swimming options," Bob Turrentine said.

Like some area mothers have called for, warning or educational signs would benefit some families in the future, Linda Turrentine said. Another solution Bob Turrentine suggested was closing the lake to swimming when the water temperature was 80 degrees – similar to the closing of other area lakes when they become unsafe for swimming.

Linda Turrentine is a realtor and has sold property on the lake before. She said she was offended by a headline in the print edition of the Pioneer Press where lake water was likened to sewage. Words like those, she said were hurting the reputation of the lake and could impact property values while nothing is certain, she said,  at this point.

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