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Sailing into the future
Name a lake anywhere. When water levels are low, complaints come rolling in. Boaters can’t launch, and often when they can, it’s hard to get in and out of marinas. Beaches sometimes disappear as sand gives way to clay or rocky bottoms. Weeds spring up, tangling propellors.
A low water level means warmer water. This leads to algae blooms earlier, and bigger than normal. These algae blooms can sometimes become toxic, afffecting wildlife, boaters and swimmers. A few years ago, Slave Lake had to shut down their water intake system because of algae concerns.
This year, Lesser Slave happens to be enjoying quite high levels. Plans for marina dredging are on hold. Boaters are happy. The algae bloom is on, but nowhere near as bad as some years. Mills downstream of Slave Lake that use Lesser Slave water are happy.
All in all, it’s been a wet year. Fortunately, not wet enough to cause the flooding we’ve seen in past years. As we know however, it just takes one big storm to suddenly turn things upside down. Research shows it doesn’t make much difference whether Lesser Slave starts out at a low level or a high level. It doesn’t make much difference what height the outlet weir at Slave Lake sits. When big rain comes, there’s no way to stop the flood.
We still worry just what is a “perfect’’ lake level. In the end, all concerns of local farmers, industry, towns and M.D.’s, cottagers and well, just about everybody around here, important today, may mean nothing tomorrow. One has to wonder how much of a say we really have in our local resource. The Golden Rule, “He who has the gold makes the rules,’’ is more truth than fiction. What we think locally, one way or the other, is going to be trampled by interests far outside our control.
Complaints about pollution, overcrowding and housing shortages in Ft. McMurray seem to fall on deaf ears. The recent power line hearings, even involving spies, are a foregone conclusion. The power line will be approved. Concentration of oil sands upgraders in the Heartland area north of Edmonton seems destined to guarantee another cesspool of pollution. It’s going full steam ahead. Lastly, water shortages in southern Alberta have brought forward a proposal to start inter-basin transfer from the Red Deer River southward. The writing is on the wall.
In the long run, it isn’t hard to imagine in coming years, Lesser Slave Lake is going to be higher, perhaps much higher, than even today’s level.
Global warming is to blame. Of course, Tennessee drought and Minnesota flooding today are also blamed on global warming. We really don’t know what is going to happen locally, or even across Alberta. But, the evidence points to drier dry areas.
Here is the twist: When Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer and areas start going dry, they won’t sit still. They will look for more water. That water can only come from northern Alberta.
So, it doesn’t take much imagination to see big money spent one of these days looking after those communities, their people and their industries. That means grooming lakes like Lesser Slave and Utikima into reservoirs for southern Alberta. This is still a long, long way down the road.
Fifteen years ago, in 1992, the Internet too was a “long way down the road.’’ Now it is a huge part of most people’s lives.
How long should we give our lakes?
Jeff Burgar
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