Big picture answers still years away, says MLWS chair. 

Work will continue this summer to gather from Moose Lake to find out how much of the phosphorus is coming from resident’s septic tanks, or whether birds or livestock contribute more.

Kellie Nichiporik, chair of the Moose Lake Watershed Society described how the donation of a qPCR machine from the Summer Village of Bonnyville Beach is helping evaluate this data.

The qualitative polymerase chain reaction machine is a fancy term but the machine allows you to look at the microbial DNA of what’s in the water. 

Phosphorus is a prime driver of the annual blue-green algae blooms around the lake.

“I know that lots of us have always wondered if there’s people coming in the lake and whether it’s from cormorants, which had been a big issue around Moose Lake. And of course, there is a cormorant action and reporting plan through the provincial government. But we also are looking whether it’s human septic as well coming into the lake,” she told Lakeland Connect. 

“We all recognize that there has been a few dog deaths in the last couple of years. And so having this machine allows us to actually test to see what species are out there and what’s really affecting our beloved pets and making sure that swimming conditions are really favourable for people around the lake.”

One thing that is known through the years of data collection already done, is that the lake is internally loaded with phosphorus.

But what the Watershed Society hopes to find out is the external loading, what is coming into the lake, in hopes to mitigate the damage and keep it healthy for longer.

However, when the big picture will crystallize, could still be years away.

“We need several years of data, especially if we can do the microbial source tracking. We definitely need a few years to be able to really identify and get a really good picture of it. Lake conditions change every year. So sometimes it is dependent on how we’ve had two years of drought, so we have less water coming into the lake — so our external loading is a little bit lighter than it has been,” said Nichiporik. 

“In the years that we flooded and then we had a lot of external flooding, the watershed was saturated. And so it was coming, a lot of external loading was coming from that. And so to be able to have a few years where the weather changes, just to have really good data set to be able to do some stats and everything like that — I think we’re looking at a few years still.” 

Nichiporik is looking for help from residents to collect these samples. Since this is all volunteer work, anyone who is interested in the longterm health of the lake, can contact her at mooselakewatershed@gmail.com or their Facebook page.

“We’re always looking for community involvement. We’re always looking for new members, but also for people who are willing to take samples around the lake. So really, all they need is device to take a GPS, which I mean, most of us carry our phones, and we have sample bottles.”