All stakeholders in protecting water basin; Lake of the Woods

[Spiel]

All stakeholders in protecting water basin

Canadian and American science and governance came together Wednesday to celebrate a new working relationship that was launched with this year’s State of the Basin Report at the Lake of the Woods Water Quality Forum.

 

 

Thursday March 13, 2008

Jon Thompson / Miner and News

 

 

Canadian and American science and governance came together Wednesday to celebrate a new working relationship that was launched with this year’s State of the Basin Report at the Lake of the Woods Water Quality Forum.

 

“The water doesn’t respect national boundaries. We all share the water,” said Todd Sellers, the executive director of the Lake of the Woods Sustainability Foundation.

 

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Minister Brad Moore’s presence at the meeting was reassuring for Sellers, who is encouraged by the cooperation south of the border.

Five years ago under a need for information sharing and policy congruence, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of the Environment in Kenora threw in with what was brought to fruition in a 95-delegate conference in International Falls, Minnesota.

 

Evidence from the American side contributes heavily to the Canadian database, with environmental assessment of the iron industry laden south of the lake. How those, non-industrial human elements impact throughout the populated regions, and other natural pollutants affect the remainder of the lake and how to maintain water quality through co-operation are the central questions as the research moves forward. As of 2010, Lake of the Woods is expected to fall under an impaired water listing in the United States, but Canadian authorities are not taking any similar measures.

 

The path to co-operation has been blazed before. The International Joint Commission first began working on the Rainy River in the 1910s and the two countries agreed to a study on the river in 1965. That recommendation was followed up by an international pollution reduction strategy, a clean up of the river and ultimately the better water quality that now results in a vibrant fishing industry.

 

“The challenge with Lake of the Woods is that it’s a long way from Toronto and Ottawa and although it’s a tremendously important lake to the province of Ontario with the second largest walleye fishery, the challenge is visibility. Is it a day-to-day concern in Southern Ontario? I think it’s starting to be. I think that Manitoba is starting to realize it’s an important lake for Manitobans, almost half Lake Winnipeg’s water comes down from the Winnipeg River.”

 

The next step is putting a framework together at a policy level that will ensure an enduring process. Sellers said policy officials from senior agencies are beginning to climb on board, adding that Kenora Mayor Len Compton and Sioux Narrows/Nestor Falls Mayor Bill Thompson are signatories to support for the research.

 

He added Kenoraites could contribute by informing their representatives in Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill of the importance of the social and environmental health of the Lake of the Woods as a political priority.

 

“What I would really ask people to do is make their voice part of the community of voices calling for co-operative actions with the United States that the lake is sustained as the jewel of the North that underpins communities of the North.”

Joan Richardson, director of the Lake of the Woods Property Owners Association, was making the political personal. With the support of private donors and a membership of 4,000, the group has been able to fund research as well as reach lake residents on the dock level. She believed that encouraging environmental personal consumption choices was the route to developing a mass movement of responsibility.

 

“We’ve done our homework, all stakeholders are in this,” she said, emphasizing her support for discovering natural and human-induced point sources of pollution with collaborative research through the foundation. “We’ve visited every municipality and most of the First Nations in the area and if they’re not signed on, they’re aware of us. Everyone around the basin is supportive.”

She foresaw government coming on board when the scientific evidence was sound and local people felt integrated in and integral to the process.