Nov 12/99
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Municipal Government
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Contact UsOn the Lakes - with Mississippi Valley Conservation's Laurel Grills David Brison
Several
weeks ago, I motored (as Hilda Geddes, the Snow Road reporter, is fond
of saying) up to Ardoch where I met Laurel Grills at a boat launching
area between Malcolm Lake and Ardoch Lake.
Laurel is in charge of The Watershed Watch Program, started in 1998,
which is monitoring water quality in many of the lakes in our Land
O'Lakes region. In the first two years of the program, she has
completed measurements on 24 lakes.
Laurel is usually accompanied by a volunteer lake steward. Lake
stewards are partners in Watershed Watch. They help Laurel collect
water samples and then distribute the results to residents on their
lakes. A steward wasn't available so I took their place.
After launching the conservation authority's aluminum canoe, we
paddled, with me in the stern and Laurel in the bow, through an inlet
into Ardoch Lake. Our destination was one of the deepest points in the
lake (about 30 feet) -- the same location where water samples were
taken by the Ministry in 1971 & 1976. When we reached the right
spot, she dropped anchor. She first measured the temperature of the
water (close to the surface) and the air (both 12.3 C). Next she showed
me how to sample water clarity with a deceptively simple device called
a Secchi disk, a round black and white disk approximately 8 inches in
diameter. The disk is lowered on a rope until you can no longer see it.
It's harder than you would think because the image floats in your mind
and you can't be sure whether you're seeing it or not. After a few
tries, my readings approximated Laurel's. She then took measurements,
which I recorded, of total phosphorus, chlorophyll, and dissolved
oxygen. Dissolved oxygen was measured at different depths and
temperatures.
The day was bright and sunny but the wind came up as we paddled back
through the inlet and into Malcolm Lake, and it got noticeably colder.
Malcolm Lake is not as deep as Ardoch and we did not measure the
dissolved oxygen at different depths and temperatures. We repeated the
other measurements and paddled back to the landing with Laurel
providing most of the power in the bow.
The primary threat to the lakes is nutrient enrichment which causes
profuse weed and algae growth leading to fundamental changes in water
quality. Nutrient enrichment, resulting primarily from phosphorus
entering the water, reduces oxygen levels -- levels necessary for the
survival of many desirable fish species.
The good news is that the mean phosphorus levels and algae
concentrations in the lakes tested in the first phase of the Watershed
Watch program (summer of 1998) indicate that the lakes are not nutrient
enriched. Water quality is very good. Laurel says that preliminary
results from the lakes measured in the summer of 1999 are also
promising.
Watershed Watch is working its way south and will finish 36 more lakes
in the next two summers. Sharbot Lake, Crotch Lake, Dalhousie Lake,
amongst others, are still to be done.
The NewsWeb will report on the results of Watershed Watch in future
issues. Laurel Grills, a knowledgeable and enthusiastic advocate for
good environmental practices, can be reached at Mississippi Valley
Conservation (they have dropped the Authority from their title):
(613) 259-2421
