Image credit: James Eliuk.

How long will it take for Muriel Lake to fully evaporate if nothing is done to save the beloved but struggling waterbody? 

That’s the unfortunate question looming around residents who’ve been users of the lake, and will be the subject of a meeting on Sunday. 

“If we don’t do something, it’s going to be a write off. You’ll never get it back, it’ll dry up just as fast as you can fill it,” says James Eliuk. 

He’s a board member of the Muriel Lake Water Basin Management Society. Their annual AGM is Sunday at noon at site one at the M.D.’s Muriel campground, and their main goal is saving Muriel Lake. 

“We’re trying to bring attention to the lake levels that have dropped so severely.”

The fear is that at the rate water has been drying up, it could only be five years until Muriel Lake is all but gone. 

Eliuk says that 80 per cent of the water volume has evaporated, close to 20 feet of vertical water over 64 square kilometres. 

“We’re down to around 14 feet in our deep areas now, if we lost that water at the rate it’s been going – we lost 18 inches in three months – that gives us about five years until we can expect it to be dry,” he said. 

In the past, companies had been allowed to take water out of the lake, without sustainability or impact studies, said Eliuk.

The results show for themselves.

But in order to something about it, takes political will — not just local, but provincial and perhaps even federal.

Eliuk says that MLA Scott Cyr is in their corner, and the AGM will see M.D. of Bonnyville councillors Darcy Skarsen and Josh Crick in attendance.

In the end, they are hoping to get permission to do a inter waterbody transfer, but time is of the essence.

And so far, there hasn’t been the will to do it.

Eliuk says the feedback they’ve received is that this is natural, and there isn’t appetite to knock down beaver dams, or other methods.

Anyone who wishes to attend is invited on Sunday.