Water Qualilty Committee Report

Fall 2008

The Water Quality Committee was mandated by the Golden Lake Property Owners Association in 2007 to look into the quality of water in Golden Lake. The first step the committee took was to search for existing information.

After speaking with the municipalities and the Renfrew County Health Unit, members established that testing for ecoli was done regularly only where paid swimming lessons were being given. No beaches have been closed due to poor water quality.

We located and read the Bonnechere River Water Project Report (February 2006) which gives test results for water at several locations along the Bonnechere watershed. Water was tested quarterly at the Golden Lake Bridge and then at the Eganville Beach between 1999 and 2001. Water quality “appears to be relatively good” according to the report. Water was tested for Nitrates/Nitrite, Phosphorus, suspended solids, E Coli and Dissolved Oxygen. Levels of pollutants are very close at the two sites. The impact of lake development on water quality was emphasized in the report.

Committee member Steve Munger pointed us to the lake Partnership Program, which is a volunteer based water quality monitoring program run in partnership with the Ministry of the Environment. This program monitors phosphorus levels. Volunteers take water samples in May and then monthly for six months, in sensitive lakes.

The committee met via email over the winter and discussed information received from the Lake Partnership Program, and from the Bonnechere River Watershed Project. Bev Clark of the Lake Partnership program said that the Kingston Office of the Ministry of the Environment acted as a lake partner for Golden Lake in 2003-2004 as part of the assessment of Renfrew County lakes. Phosphorous levels were found to be well below the acceptable level.

The GLPOA water quality committee met April 09 at the Golden Sands. Committee members agreed to have ALS Laboratory Group conduct tests on Golden Lake water for phosphorous, ecoli and nitrates over the 2008 summer. Volunteers would collect samples from three locations once a month over the summer, and the samples would be sent to the ALS labs by courier.

After speaking again with Bev Clark at the Ministry of the Environment, we were advised that such an approach would be a waste of both time and money, and that the level of phosphorous is an excellent marker as to water quality. He pointed out that the Lake Parnership Program works with lake associations to test for phosphorous levels at no cost. He said too that testing for ecoli is of no use because there is always ecoli in the water, and that it moves around according to where the wildlife is at any given time.

When the MOE report, Water Quality Management of Coldwater Lakes, County of Renfrew, became available we reviewed the information about Golden Lake.

We became part of the Lake Parntership program sponsored by the Ministry of the Environment, and FOCA, and tested the water on the east side of Golden Lake in May, 2008. Lakes on the Canadian Shield are tested only once a year. The results of the samples taken in May were 8.3 and 8.6 micrograms per litre, very close to results in the 2003-2004 testing. A count below 10 is considered a low nutrient count, and according to Anna Desellas of the Lake Partnership Program. On a lake as developed as Golden Lake, anything below 10 is very good. The committee agreed to continue testing phosphorous levels annually.

The committee also reviewed several reports on cormorants, including a Ministry of Natural Resources report that can be accessed here. The MNR report pointed out that cormorants are a species native to Ontario and cites reports that indicate that on Lake Erie the cormorants eat fewer fish than do merganser ducks. The report suggests that the cormorant population is high because the cormorants are eating so well wintering over at the catfish farms in Mississippi. The report also indicates that cormorant nesting can result in damage to vegetation.

The committee concluded that public education about the impact of human development on the lake was of paramount importance. The committee also agreed to do further research about the impact of cormorants.

Report by Kathy Lampi
September 10, 2008