As a severe algal bloom on Lake Winnipeg made a mess of Winnipeg Beach and Gimli a few weeks ago, a further mass of foul-smelling algae moved in to communities farther north, blanketing the shoreline around Arnes, inundating the Silver Harbour Marina and turning the Drunken River into a bright green slurry.
Arnes resident and Gimli councillor Andy Damm said the bloom started the weekend of Sept. 23-24 and only started dissipating last Wednesday. He and area residents thought they were “living in a sewer” with the noxious smell coming off the lake.
“The algal blooms just started to get progressively worse and didn’t dissipate,” said Damm. “It back-flowed all the way up the Drunken River [which drains farmland from the west] – probably because the lake was quite high – and also entered the Silver Harbour Marina,” said Damm. “At the same time the bloom was happening up here, it started in Gimli as well because I was in touch with people down there.”
Phosphorus and nitrogen loading to the lake exacerbate the growth of algae, and the with the fall a little warmer than normal, water temperatures were higher, causing the blooms to “more or less explode in this area,” he said.
The algal bloom problem isn’t new and it’s time for governments to take action to reduce phosphorus (the primary pollutant contributing to algae growth) loading to the 10th largest freshwater lake in the world, as well as address a “multitude” of other pollutants that get piped into the lake, which communities rely on for commercial fishing, drinking water and tourist-related activities, said Damm. Governments are very good at studying issues to death, but they’re way past the point of action.
“Scientists and governments have been studying this out here since 1980. That gives you an idea as to how slowly our province is acting,” said Damm. “There’s a multitude of reasons [algae] happens, but I think the biggest one is the treated and raw sewage coming out of the treatment plants in Winnipeg that go right in the Red and Assiniboine rivers and north into the lake’s south basin.”
It’s well known that Winnipeg’s North End Water Pollution Control Centre is not in compliance with phosphorus levels set by the provincial government, and that the government has given the city a pass. In addition to treated wastewater that contains phosphorus and other pollutants which aren’t removed by the treatment process, the city’s combined sewers send raw sewage directly into rivers. That makes the problem worse as they release additional phosphorus plus bacteria and debris that eventually flow into Lake Winnipeg.
According the City of Winnipeg’s untreated sewage webpage, the latest combined sewer overflow (CSO) sent about .03 megalitres of raw sewage into the Assiniboine River starting on Sept. 18 and lasting for approximately six days and eight hours. On Sept. 1, another .03 megalitres poured into the Assiniboine for about three hours and 50 minutes. And on Aug. 15, a further .17 megalitres spilled into the Assiniboine.
About a third of Winnipeg has CSOs, which were designed to prevent the flooding of city basements. There are about 22 combined sewer spills a year on average – at each outfall. The city has 76 outfalls.
In 2017 the provincial Conservative government gave the City of Winnipeg 27 years (until 2045) to reduce its CSOs by 85 per cent.
Damm said he and council have broached water quality issues with Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman MP James Bezan, showing him photos of algae and hoping “we can get some assistance from the federal government going forward.”
Canada and the U.S. have worked together on cleaning up Lake Erie, he said, yet residents along Lake Winnipeg are “pushing against our own backyard (Winnipeg)” and against the phosphorus and other pollutants coming up from the U.S. via the Red River.
“On top of that, our own agriculture industry adds to this problem. But the low hanging fruit is the sewer discharge out of Winnipeg,” said Damm. “Every time a toilet is flushed down there, we end up with it in our front yards. I’d love to take my garbage and dump it on city hall in Winnipeg every time this happens and see how they appreciate that.”
Damm said council would like to send a delegation to Winnipeg council to ask them why they’re “sitting on this” when they have money for other infrastructure projects.
“If they had to drink a glass of this water or go swimming or send their grandkids in the lake, I doubt they’d do it,” he said.
Gimli and other communities along the lake – including Indigenous communities – rely on commercial fishing, and Damm said he would not like to see a decline in that industry, in the recreational industry and a further decline in wildlife species because the “province can’t put laws in to protect this lake and enforce them.”
When asked last week if anyone from the provincial department of environment and climate would be testing the water in the Arnes/Silver Harbour area to see if human health could be at risk, a spokesperson for the department said no algae were found.
“Staff from the Department of Environment and Climate have investigated reports of an algal bloom on the west side of Lake Winnipeg. However, no algae have been present to be sampled. This is not unusual as algal blooms can form and then disperse quickly, especially with windy conditions and cooler temperatures,” said the spokesperson.
“When algal blooms appear during the recreational water quality season, samples are tested and results are compared to water quality objectives as part of the Clean Beaches Program. The program, which is managed by Environment and Climate in conjunction with Manitoba Health, provides information on how to protect beaches and reduce recreational health risks.”
When asked what the newly elected NDP government plans to do regarding algal blooms on Lake Winnipeg, the spokesperson referred the Express to a party spokesperson as no cabinet had yet been chosen. There was no response by deadline.
