by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
COBDEN — Cleaning up Muskrat Lake is not going to happen over night. The message scientist Rebecca Dalton has is while the farmers have done much of the nutrient polluting, it will take the whole community along the Muskrat Watershed to clean it up.
Following an hour-long presentation to a crowd of about 80 people Saturday morning at the Cobden Legion, Ms. Dalton said, “Unfortunately, there is no easy, quick solution. This has taken decades to get to where the lake’s situation is now.
“I think the data is showing the nutrients are coming from the annual crop lands, so there is definitely an issue with agriculture,” she said. “However, it requires a concerted effort from, not only farmers, but from other citizens as well, to provide the right incentives to help farmers to be able to implement practices that will reduce nutrients.”
Saturday morning, Ms. Dalton was the guest speaker for the Muskrat Watershed Council’s (MWC) annual general meeting at the Cobden Legion.
She presented an overview of the report she created, Water Quality in the Muskrat Lake Watershed. The report itself is 36 pages plus 28 pages of maps detailing the water sampling locations. It was made available through a $4,000 donation to the MWC from the Cobden and District Civitan Club.
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Prior to her presentation, Brian Whitehead, the science committee chairman of MWC, said Ms. Dalton was hired to evaluate the 2014 water quality monitoring data collected by students from Algonqin College.
He explained that the MWC encompasses the entire Muskrat River system, which includes the Snake River, Muskrat River and Muskrat Lake.
The purpose of the MWC is to focus on water quality.
“There is not a single organization in government or anywhere that is set up specifically to improve water quality, but that’s our mission, that’s our focus,” Mr. Whitehead said.
The MWC is reaching out to all sectors, government and private, to help find a solution to the pollution problem in the watershed, specifically Muskrat Lake.
“Our approach has been one of, and still is, a no blame strategy,” he said, stressing, “We are not blaming anybody for water quality. It is what it is.”
There is now science behind what is causing the pollution, and that is nutrient overloading, he said.
However, Mr. Whitehead stressed there is a “real need for volunteers to step forward and help the current volunteers.
“We need to make noise to get the attention,” he said. “One of the challenges we have is Muskrat Lake and watershed are similar to Lake Simcoe and Lake Erie, but we’re sort of a voice in the wilderness at this point. It takes some effort to get the attention of provincial politicians and the government.
“I think we’re on that path and heading in the right direction, but we need the support of the community in that effort and volunteers to step up with us.”
Hal Johnson, the mayor of the Township of Whitewater Region, said council is impressed with the MWC and is in favour of the no finger pointing approach.
He noted those people who have had fingers pointed at them in the past are now doing the most to try and fix the problem.
Mayor Johnson said it’s time the government agencies heard what is happening to Muskrat Lake. There were tests done on the lake and watershed and it’s now known there is a way to fix the problem, he said.
“We’re going to fix this,” he said. “We’re going to scream loud and we’re going to fix this.”
Renfrew-Nipissing- Pembroke John Yakabuski also addressed the crowd. He noted with this report the MWC has solid proof to take to the province in making a case for more funding.
MPP Yakabuski said he wants people to understand this is now a life-time commitment.
He is also in favour that looking into the problems was not to cause blame.
“As Mayor Johnson said and Brian have said all along, this is not about blame, it never has been,” he said. “It’s about the condition of the watershed and how it has affected the lake. So, whatever the cause may be, we’re trying to identify that, which is a part of this process.”
It will then be a perpetual commitment from everyone involved to do what is necessary to affect the watershed positively, he added.
“So, that when we start to improve the quality of the lake, that is a continuous process,” he said. “It’s not about finding out how bad the lake is so we can wring our hands, it’s about how to make that lake better by addressing the entire watershed that Muskrat encompasses.”
While the province hasn’t stepped up to the plate 100 per cent, MPP Yakabuski said this report will certainly be a significant help in getting more of the province’s attention.
“I don’t want the people to be discouraged,” he said. “I know people want things to happen quickly. I want to make sure you support this organization, continue to volunteer and continue to assist them in the way they need your help in making this better for all of us.”
THE REPORT
Mr. Whitehead said Ms. Dalton is a research scientist with expertise in ecotoxiology of aquatic systems. Her research programs have focused on assessing the affects of agrichemicals, such as fertilizers and herbicides, on plant and algae communities and river systems, he added.
“Much of her work is focused on assessing effects and excess nutrients on water quality and eco system health, which makes her qualifications well suited for analyzing the water quality data collected last year,” Mr. Whitehead stressed.
Ms. Dalton said living and playing near water was what got her interested in the type of research she does.
“I really love water,” she said. “When I’m playing I’m in the water, when I’m working I’m in the water. That’s my background. That’s what got me interested in the type of research I do.”
With a cottage on the Ottawa River, which is pristine, Ms. Dalton said it made her begin thinking what would happen if there was an accident, since Chalk River laboratories are on the river.
She began thinking, “What are we going to do if we are not able to use this water body for recreation.”
Ms. Dalton began looking at different types of pesticides and how they affect amphibians. Her past work has been with plant and algae and she is currently working on water quality problems in the South Nation Watershed, which is in the Bermuda Triangle of Ontario — it’s east of Ottawa above the Sts. Lawrence River and south of the Ottawa River.
It’s 4,000 sq. kilometres that is highly agriculture and has a lot of water quality issues.
“South Nation has the dubious distinction of being the fifth most polluted river in Ontario in terms of phosphorous,” Ms. Dalton said.
She has been working on this watershed since 2007 and has looked at the affects of excess nutrients and how they affect the plants, algae and eco system health in general.
As for the Muskrat Lake Watershed, Ms. Dalton said the first problem was to find where the nutrient problems were coming from.
She noted it’s not about who caused the nutrient problem, but what is needed to address the water quality issues.
“There are a number of different potential sources of nutrients and these can include wastewater treatment plants, and there is one along the lake, also sources of atmospheric deposition of nitrogen can occur, which may be a minor source and not much control over.” she said.
However, there is pollution people do have control over, such as run-off of nutrients from land around the lake, she added. To stop the run-off, there are various solutions, including planting vegetative buffers, which would work great around agricultural land, she added.
The run-off from agriculture can be over the surface and through the drainage systems, Ms. Dalton explained.
The problem with run-off is it causes eutrophication, which refers to the excess growth of plants and algae, she said.
“The tricky thing about eutrophication is it really is a pollution problem, but nutrients are also essential for life in general and for plants and algae,” she said. “Plants and algae form an important part of your lake so you need them to some degree.
“But, if you add nutrients in excess, plants and algae grow out of control and you get things like macrophite problems, aquatic weed problems. But primarily you are looking at phytoplankton or algal growth that can cause a lot of problems.”
An algae bloom can become very murky and could look like spilled green paint on the lake, she explained.
Ms. Dalton said the algae will eventually die and sink to the bottom of the lake, use up all of the oxygen and that’s where problems begin, such as fish kills.
“Some of the algae produce toxins that can be problematic for people and property values,” she said.
The algae plants grow and start shading out the aquatic plants that should be there and eventually your lake looks like pea soup.
Muskrat Lake is 1,201 hectares in length and is as much as 64 metres deep, with an average depth of 19 metres. It’s used for recreation and drinking water and supports a large number of fish species, she said.
The problem with Muskrat Lake is its highly nutrient enriched.
“Where do those nutrients come from,” she questioned. “They come from various sources surrounding the watershed and various land use activities.”
Ms. Dalton reviewed the land throughout the watershed, which includes forest, annual crop lands, pasture and forage fields and natural habitat.
Ms. Dalton noted the MWC and Algonquin College took on a big initiative and collected samples at 27 field sites throughout April to October, which covers the growing season. These field sites were primarily in the Snake River Watershed, because that’s where the bulk of the water draining into Muskrat Lake comes from, she explained.
The Ministry of Environment and CC (MOE CC) measured 43 different parameters, which is a huge number of water quality indicators, Ms. Dalton said.
“The report I did is just beginning to scratch the surface as to what exactly is going on in terms of water quality,” Ms. Dalton said. “The main objectives I had was to view this data collected in 2014 and put forth some recommendations for future monitoring, future analysis as well as a path forward.”
Ms. Dalton focused on major fractions of nutrients, which can exist in water in different forms.
The nutrients she focused on were nitrate, total nitrogen, phosphorous and total suspended sediments, which is basically the dirt that’s going into the water and is suspended in the water.
“If you were to filter this water, the total suspended solids would be what’s left on the filter,” she said, “which includes things like clay, silt, algae, and decomposing matter related to phosphorus concentrations.”
Reviewing graphs, she noted of the 27 field sites, all of them had high concentrations of nutrients throughout the growing season, dipping down in August and coming back up in September and October.
However, the sites showed the watershed is extremely phosphorous enriched, she added.
Areas of concern are the Upper Harris Drain, O’Gorman Agnew Drain, the Unnamed Creek, Stocqua Creek and the Cobden wetland.
She did note the wetland is not high in nitrogen, but is in phosphorous, which signifies there is a source coming from the wetland that needs to be addressed.
She noted the total suspended solids was low in the Muskrat River Watershed but increases downstream, which means there is run-off occurring further and further downstream.
When the Snake River marsh is reached, there is a big drop in total suspended solids, which means they are sinking to the bottom, which is a good thing.
Ms. Dalton provided maps created by the MOE CC showing the land use upstream of each of the field sites in a one kilometre area and how the use is affecting the different parameters.
“You do get a huge range of land uses at the sites,” she noted.
“Black creek is a pristine site and the majority of land use is forests, and wetlands,” she said. “Contrast that to the Upper Harris Drain, which is annual crop land and pasture and forage land.”
Ms. Dalton said, “There is a strong relationship between nitrogen, nitrate concentrations and annual crop land.
“There is also a significant relationships between having more pasture and forage land.”
Where there is natural habitat, there is less nitrogen, which means conserving natural habitat is an important way of reducing nitrogen concentrations.
Phosphorus is a similar story, Ms. Dalton added.
“As the annual crop land increases, then the amount of phosphorous increases as well,” she said. “It’s not as strong for nitrogen, but you can see that more annual crop land means more nutrients.”
She said there is still much data to go through, but before giving conclusions, she wanted to explain to the people how some of the analysis was done.
“The main conclusions you can take from this is that across the watershed, and at some sites in particular, concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous are quite high and in some cases very high.”
She added, “The big take home message from what’s coming out of the data is quite clearly is that the more annual crop land you have, then the higher the concentrations of nutrients.”
She noted fertilizer is containable in both nitrogen and phosphorous, which is related to annual crop land. Fertilizers are running off into the tributaries, which flow into the rivers and creeks and eventually ending up in Muskrat Lake.
Another message to take home is that reducing nutrient loading is essential to improving the water quality, Ms. Dalton stated.
“We’re seeing high nutrient concentrations in some of the tributaries and before anything else in the lake happens or technologies are implemented in the lake itself, the key is reducing amount of nutrients into the lake.”
In moving forward, Ms. Dalton said it’s important the majority of monitoring sites continue to be monitored, however, due to the expense, that may not be possible.
It’s also important to include data from Muskrat Lake, which will give a clear record of what’s happening in the lake as well as the surrounding tributaries, she added.
Ms. Dalton noted there was a wealth of data collected, but it’s still only scratching the surface.
“There is still a whack of data that needs to be analyzed and a system in place so that you are aware of what data is being collected and that it gets out to the council and the public in general to formulate a plan,” she stated.
A step to be taken is how to lower nitrogen and phosphorous in order to improve the water quality, she noted. There are many different management practices that could be implemented to improve water quality, but were not included in this report, she said.
One suggestion is controlled tile drainage where there are annual crop lands, she said.
What happens is that after the period of intense run-off in the spring, farmers are able to stop drainage into the system with the controlled tile drainage, which has been successful in the South Nation watershed.
“It’s been quite effective,” she said. “It has resulted in a net increase in crop yields for the farmers.
“That’s the type of technology that needs to be thought about and assessed.”
Ms. Dalton noted there is a “big diversity of stakeholders, people who are interested in water quality and that people have different competing needs.”
The watershed council is made up of people from diverse backgrounds and different organizations all working together.
Following her presentation, Ms. Dalton received questions from the audience.
Following the presentation, Mr. Whitehead presented Ms. Dalton with a gift and thanked the Cobden Civitan club for the $4,000 to cover the cost of the study.
Mr. Whitehead said while he was glad to see 70 people attend the meeting, it would have been better had there been 170 people. This is important to the community of those living around the lake and along the watershed, he said, adding, of which there are hundreds.
As for why there was only a few young people attending the meeting, Mr. Whitehead said, “I hadn’t really thought it that much, but it’s important enough that they should have been here.
“It’s something we have to work on. I don’t have an answer as to why it’s only older people.
“Maybe they have more time on their hands.”
MPP Yakabuski said he will continue to work with the council as he has done in the past.
This report identifies the challenges this council is facing, he said.
“This gives us a little more meat on the bone when it comes to approaching the various ministries to see if there can be more help in trying to develop strategies to mitigate the flow into the Muskrat River watershed,” he said.
The MPP said there is a big problem that can be a challenge to fight individually, but with people working together, it can be resolved.
