Algal blooms on Lake Wahtopanah near Rivers

Earlier today, Craig Loewen and I visited Lake Wahtopanah after reports that there have been major problems with algal blooms on the lake.

When I was there the wind was from the west and we were told most of the algal blooms were being blown toward the east end of the lake. Nevertheless, in talking to people at the lake we heard concerns about the water, the algae and the weeds.

At a time when we have major concerns over algal blooms on Lake Winnipeg, one of the useful approaches to improving water quality province wide would be to focus on lakes like Killarney Lake and Lake Wahtopanah which have periodic problems with high levels of phosphorous and with algal blooms. These blooms have an adverse effect on tourism businesses in the area. Let us mobilize the effort to clean up lakes like Lake Wahtopanah. And in doing so we will learn lessons which will be important to cleaning up the much larger Lake Winnipeg.

The photos show Lake Wahtopanah (top), algal bloom on the Little Saskatchewan River just below the lake (second photo). I was told that similar blooms occur along the shores of the lake lake when the wind blows them in. Matts of weeds (third photo) are also a problem. Decreasing the algal blooms and the weeds would have a very positive impact on visitors and improve the use of the beach and swimming in the lake (bottom photo).