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Watershed council wants to share in the news
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The Lesser Slave regulation weir. In 1999 water levels dropped so low that water flow over the weir stopped
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Patrick Keller
For Spotlight
When it comes to those affected by local lake levels and river flows, every living thing is a stakeholder.
Plants, animals and people affected by what goes in and out of Lesser Slave River, then, stand to benefit from a series of open houses to be held in three communities along Lesser Slave Lake.
Slave Lake, High Prairie, and Jousard will be host to presentations from the Lesser Slave Watershed Council (LSWC) on May 19, 20 and 21, respectively, in what Executive Director Meghan Payne describes as a “kind of a mini tradeshow” for all water related topics.
For the LSWC, the open house presentations the final steps before the water management plan is submitted to Alberta Environment. The LSWC has been living and breathing issues of watershed management for several years, and this is one opportunity to get the word out.
A bit of history regarding lake water levels would include the installation of the weir in 1983. The project served to control outflow from the lake and prevent flooding of low-lying river areas, said Payne.
In 1999, emergency measures were employed to return a functional volume of water to the river.
“Flow over the weir into the Lesser Slave River was intermittent and virtually ceased from November 21-24,” said Payne. That situation threatened water supplies and the health of the river’s aquatic environment.
In 2006, a combination of silt, low temperatures and resulting ice formations again blocked water flow to the river, and consequently the weir. Again, said Payne, emergency measures had to be implemented.
For the last 10 years the Lesser Slave Watershed Council has kept its finger on the pulse of the lake and the river, following the formation of a watershed committee, then the Watershed Planning and Advisory Council under the provincial Water for Life Strategy.
Now, working alongside Alberta Environment, the group is hoping to create a framework of guidelines which would protect water supplies for municipal and industrial uses. They call this process Phase 1.
The plan, said Payne, focuses on the issue of low flow conditions in the Lesser Slave River, and how to ensure an adequate water supply for river users, while protecting the aquatic environment.
The group also concerned themselves with instream flow needs (IFN), sedimentation in the lake’s outlet channel and an assessment of the impacts of the weir configuration.
Information on these and other pressing issues will be shared with the public through the series of open houses. For example, one thing that all stakeholders might benefit from is a way to gauge water quality.
“We don’t have a water quality monitoring station,” Payne told us. “That’s definitely something we need. You know, everyone that is downstream from Mitsue - all the people along the Athabasca, they would probably like to know what going on.”
The open houses, then, are also a forum for exchanging information, and getting feedback from the public. Joining the folks from the LSWC will be Ducks Unlimited, and the Lesser Slave Forest Education Society.
There will be display materials from the High Prairie Riparian Action Team and the Alberta Conservation team. ACT will be delivering the living by water program on the shores of Lesser Slave Lake this summer.
To find out more, or voice your concerns, plan to attend one of the open houses in a nearby community. In Slave Lake, the date is May 19, 7:00 p.m. at Northern Lakes College. On May 20, High Prairie’s Elks Hall hosts the event, also at 7:00 p.m. and May 21, the Joussard Community Hall opens the doors at 7:00 p.m.
To obtain a copy of the Water Management Plan for review please contact the LSWC at 780-523-9800 or visit the website at www.lswc.ca.
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