Hydrogen Sulphide to blame for Jessie Lake’s smell

Hydrogen sulphide is the cause of Jessie Lake’s odour, LICA says.

During presentations to town council last Tuesday, LICA (Lakeland Industry and Community Association) showed the data of air quality monitoring they’ve around the lake and what they’re doing to mitigate the smell.

They determined after four years of testing that air pollutants around Jessie Lake are comparable to those around Cold Lake except for the smell.

However, hydrogen sulphide levels are higher than average.

In one-hour concentration tests from their Portable Air Monitoring System, hydrogen sulphide was measured at 30-80 ppb (parts per billion) while smells can usually be measured above the 10 ppb.

These are not unsafe levels to breathe, as adverse health effects are not expected until you reach levels 1000-20,000 ppb range.

But through their testing, they saw that the sewage lagoons east of Bonnyville are also exceeding 10 ppb.

“They now have the data to basically be able to demonstrate and prove the hydrogen sulfide, the rotten egg smell, there is a lot of it in the air that’s very, very detectable,” said Mayor Gene Sobolewski.

“That lake is off the charts in terms of phosphorus and some other like nitrogens and nutrients. [It’s a] very, very nutrient-rich lake and so when mother nature does its thing and does its breakdown in the aerobic areas and the bottom of the lake, the bubbles that are rising up basically are the sweet-smelling gases that we smell.”

Restoring Jessie Lake

Along with the air quality testing, LICA has been looking to find solutions to the smell problem.

Since Jessie Lake is a kettle lake, there are no natural waterways that flow into or out, runoff from the town sits in the lake.

It’s believed that the accumulation of herbicides, pet waste, litter, and fertilizers have a big impact on the algae blooms which releases Hydrogen Sulphide and the odour.

LICA is looking to bolster the riparian area, the space between the lake and land, to reduce the amount of phosphorus entering the lake.

Later this year, LICA is looking to plant 5,000 seedlings of red osier dogwood along Jessie Lake’s riparian area from 42 Street to 55 Street.

An additional 7,500 willow seedlings will be planted from 55 Street to 58 Street along the Pro Rodeo Grounds.

The money comes from the Watershed Resiliency and Restoration Program grant from Alberta Environment and Parks.

“They’re going to be continuing on there they’re making a grant application to continue on with that particular project. And so the town, we wholesale supported it because it is something that everybody can smell, the sweet smell of spring,” said Sobolewski.

LICA has also done shoreline cleanups along Jessie Lake for the past two years.

LICA said last year that phosphorus levels in Jessie Lake had the highest phosphorus count of any lake tested in Alberta in 2018.