The 2020 Water Quality monitoring program was carried out during the open water season and the prime program objectives remained unchanged:
- To ensure compliance with Saskatchewan Surface Water Quality Objectives for Recreation and Aesthetics and for the protection of Aquatic Life.
- To gather baseline physical and chemical parameter data that can be used for comparisons over time to determine trends and to monitor any parameter changes
Three sampling trips were made to Anglin, Christopher, and McPhee lakes to collect physical parameter data at sites located centrally on each of the lakes. Data collected at each site included water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and transparency data (Secchi depth). In September, a water sample was collected at Anglin, Christopher, and McPhee Lakes which was analyzed by the Saskatchewan Research Council in Saskatoon.
This program utilizes volunteers at each of the lakes to aid with the survey and to provide boat transportation to the sampling locations. The District of Lakeland thanks the following individuals: Al Christensen at Anglin Lake, Wayne Bartel at Christopher Lake and Pauline Smith at McPhee Lake.
The 2020 data collected at all the sampling locations remained very consistent with the previous years data obtained at these sites. All the data collected met the provincial objectives for Recreation and Aesthetics and for the protection of Aquatic Life.
Emma Lake was also monitored in 2020 as part of the Nutrient study initiated in 2018 in partnership with Saskatchewan Polytechnic and the North Saskatchewan River Basin Council. Four members of the District Environmental Advisory Committee; Keith Dahl, Daryl Jessop, Tom Laxdal and Wayne Hyde along with a SaskPoly student collected weekly transparency readings on all three of the Emma lakes. The normal physical data collected with a multimeter at all three of the Emma lakes was done weekly and several migratory bird surveys were also conducted. The data from this three-year study will be analyzed over the winter.
Wayne Hyde
Environmental Advisory Committee