Being an environmental whistleblower is a thankless job, but two Lake Winnipeg commercial fishers are determined to get the provincial government to take action on pollution in Lake Winnipeg.
The south basin of the lake and some of its tributaries along the west shore were hit by foul-smelling, extensive algal blooms this fall, and commercial fishers in the Hecla-Grindstone region were also beset by a series of thick blooms. One fisher said he collected water samples in October after he encountered – yet again – a large mass of fecal matter in the water along with algae.
That the fishers are now fighting another front in the form of a sewage lagoon that a Hutterite colony proposes to build in the RM of Armstrong comes as no surprise; the lagoon is to be drained into Willow Creek, south of Gimli, and flow straight into Lake Winnipeg.
Commercial fisher Robert T. Kristjanson, who turned 90 last week, said he’s been trying to engage the new provincial environment and climate change minister on the continuing degradation of the 11th largest freshwater lake in the world after he and other fishers were inundated with blooms during the fall commercial harvest. He’s hoping the NDP, which formed government in October, will stop the continuing eutrophication of the lake.
“The lake is now frozen over and all the pollutants are hidden under the ice where people can’t see it,” said Kristjanson, who earned the Order of Manitoba in 2018 for raising awareness of algal blooms. “What do we do? I went to the legislature on open house day [Dec. 2] and I couldn’t get in the [environment] minister’s door. How are we going to be able to get through to our elected representatives about the pollution in the lake and the lagoon they want to build on Willow Creek?”
Kristjanson said he asked Gimli’s mayor and council to “get some answers” regarding the proposed lagoon that will be built on the Armstrong-Gimli municipal border.
“It’s only five miles to where [the colony] could put their waste into Gimli’s sewage plant. This sewage doesn’t have to go as far as the Moon,” said Kristjanson. “You can’t accept this proposal where they’re going to be putting up to 250 people on the land then dump their waste into a cesspool. The days of sewage lagoons are gone.”
Kristjanson said he had reached out to the provincial minister of environment and climate change weeks ago to ask her for a discussion about the proposed lagoon and the state of the lake, but he didn’t receive a reply.
“I went to the government with an open hand. We have every single solitary pollutant being dumped into the lake right now and we can’t find a government inspector to look at it,” he said. “We’ve got [agricultural] nutrients going into the lake off the land. We can’t seem to get people to stop polluting this lake. I want my grandchildren to live to be my age.”
Commercial fisher Bill Buckels is also continuing to pressure the government to protect the environment.
In 2018 Buckels took the Express on the lake to show the paper a mass of fecal matter swirling off the coast of the tourist-heavy Hecla-Grindstone region. He had taken water samples and paid a laboratory to analyse it; it tested positive for fecal coliforms. The lab was unable to provide DNA testing to determine if the feces was human or animal.
In October of this year, Buckels said he once again encountered a considerable load of feces in the water. He gathered several samples and reached out to provincial staff and water-related agencies. No one would come out to test the water or agree to test his samples.
“I phoned EIWD [East Interlake Watershed District] and the staffer who answered the phone told me water testing is not their job. So I asked for a water sample bottle and they said we don’t have them and we don’t do that. I had been in contact with the Namao [research vessel] but there was no response to my request to have my samples tested. I asked the Lake Winnipeg Foundation. And I spoke to the scientist at the government’s water science branch. Even though the water is full of shit, the province considers it safe – that’s what she said. For her to tell me that I don’t understand when I stood in shit every day, I find that more than insulting,” said Buckels.
“It seems the government and these agencies are apologists for polluters. They are, in effect, part of the cover-up. During a major shit event, why aren’t they out there? Why isn’t the EIWD out there? They can drop by several times a day because their office is in Gimli. When they get reports of these harmful environmental events occurring – such as the one I reported in October – why do they refuse to test?”
Buckels said the outgoing provincial Conservative government “tightened up” citizen involvement on Manitoba’s watershed district boards “except through the politically correct farmer channel” because, apparently, they can decide what’s “best for the water” rather than environmental organizations and citizens.
“But agricultural operations are polluters of Lake Winnipeg. That’s a fact. The [previous] government gave us a corrupt piece of watershed legislation that should be revisited now that we’ve had a change of government,” he said. “And it’s not just farmers polluting this lake. It’s sewage plants and lagoons and the rest of us. It’s time for all of us to clean up our act. And for some reason, no one wants to talk about shit [feces] in the lake. They’ll test clean water, but they don’t want to test water with shit in it.”
In the fall when thick blue-green algae blanketed the shoreline, harbours and tributaries in communities such as Winnipeg Beach, Gimli and Arnes, Buckels said he was disturbed by the province’s lackadaisical response.
“There really are algal blooms on this lake even if the province claims it can’t find them,” said Buckels. “They’re the result of climate change, in which the lake temperature has remained warm late into the fall, and the result of a steady injection of nutrients flowing into the lake from agricultural operations, including pigs and cattle, and from wastewater. Why does our government continue to allow phosphorus to pour into Lake Winnipeg, which is already suffering from high nutrient levels and algal blooms?”
Water bodies around the globe are degrading from nutrient overloading. An overabundance of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen flowing into lakes and oceans cause algal blooms and eutrophication, which in turn lead to oxygen-depleted water. That causes ecosystem failures that can take the form of fish die-off events, acidification and contaminated water supplies. Eutrophication affects 54 per cent of lakes in Asia, 53 per cent in Europe, 48 per cent in North America, 41 per cent in South America and 28 per cent in Africa, according to the 2022 publication “The Global Assessment of Private Sector Impacts on Water.”
Buckels said the provincial government shouldn’t make matters worse for the lake by allowing the proposed construction of the sewage lagoon in the RM of Armstrong to proceed. The lagoon’s human and animal slaughter waste will only add more pollutants to the lake. He’d like to see the waste trucked to the Gimli sewage plant.
“I believe the government is just not going to do anything about pollution going into the lake. There’s been a concentrated conspiracy to leave Lake Winnipeg as the super sewage lagoon that it has been over the course of my lifetime,” he said. “We’re just going to trot along behind the polluters like lemmings over a precipice.”
EIWD manager Armand Belanger said the watershed district, which like all districts is a partnership between the province and local governments, does sample water on occasion and is open to more sampling in the future.
“While we don’t actively monitor the water quality and nutrient loading of the lake, we’ve been able to sample water on occasion with the help of our partners at the Province of Manitoba Water Quality Monitoring Program and the Lake Winnipeg Foundation, Lake Winnipeg Community-Based Monitoring Network. We’re open to sampling water in the future, but we’d need a plan in place to verify our capacity, protocol and partner responsibilities,” said Belanger. “The EIWD is committed to improving the overall health of the watershed and actively works with people in the watershed and project funders to encourage sustainable use of land and water resources.”
In response to the proposed construction of the sewage lagoon in Armstrong, the RM of Gimli posted a notice of objection on its website, saying it retained a third-party consultant to review the [colony’s] application under the Environment Act.
“On December 8, 2023, the Rural Municipality of Gimli provided the Department of Environment and Climate Change’s Environmental Approvals Branch with its written comments, along with a review report prepared by its third party consultant,” says the statement. “The Rural Municipality of Gimli objected to the proposed construction of the lagoon given the lack of adequate due diligence and proper public consultation. The Rural Municipality of Gimli has requested that a public hearing be held as a consequence of the foregoing. The Rural Municipality of Gimli understands that the Environmental Approvals Branch’s review process is ongoing.”
The statement also says that the RM spoke with the RM of Armstrong to understand what steps it has taken and will be taking “to ensure that due diligence and public consultation takes place.”
A spokesperson for the provincial department of environment and climate change said the proposed lagoon is in the process of being assessed.
“The department is aware of the concerns surrounding the proposed lagoon, and the project is currently undergoing an environmental assessment under the Environment Act,” he said. “The environmental assessment includes a robust review of all aspects of the proposed lagoon to ensure the lagoon, if licensed, is operated in a manner that protects public health and the environment.”
As for Kristjanson’s attempts to speak with the environment minister, the spokesperson said the department was in contact with him in mid-November, “appreciates and values” his expertise on the lake and “confirmed they would be pleased to talk to him at any time.”
