The purpose of this letter- call to action
- is to raise concerns through an email letter to
your political representatives (city, provincial, federal)
regarding the status of the health of Lake Winnipeg and the
supporting river systems. Today, the Coalition to Save Lake Winnipeg (CSLW) is reaching out to you for your support.
As an introduction - the Coalition to
Save Lake Winnipeg is a grass roots organization comprising of
associations/organizations, various stakeholders, and Selkirk ( to name
a few - RM Gimli, Victoria Beach, RM Alexander, Fishers.
Recreational Users, etc) in the south Basin of Lake Winnipeg.
This coalition works closely with the Lake Winnipeg Foundation and
other notable provincial organizations. The prime objective of the
coalition is to inform the general population on issues facing our
lakes and waterways and to engage with our political representatives to
pursue the objective of water quality.
The Coalition has identified a number
of important issues that affect the health of Lake
Winnipeg, but there are two points that stand out, such as:
- The seeming lack of progress in
addressing the need to reduce nutrients from the North End Water
Pollution Control Centre (NEWPACC) to meet the licensing and
other
requirements and provisions of the Provincial Environment Act and Water
Protection Act. The high levels of phosphorous emissions from our
treatment plants is a major contributor to algae blooms seen in Lake
Winnipeg.
- NEWPCC
cannot handle current water volumes, and has not been able to support
volumes for the past many years due primarily to inadequate
maintenance procedures and a lack of proper funding. You only have to
look at the recent Wolseley affair and another dumping of raw
sewage and effluent at the St. Charles station into the Assiniboine -
this is routine with no fixes in sight. For example, in 2018 the City
of Edmonton dumped 1.5 million cubic metres of raw sewage into the
North Saskatchewan river (equivalent of 634 Olympic size pools); after
spending 200 million dollars on treatment upgrades they reduced their
effluent levels to 52,000 cubic metres (equivalent to 21 Olympic
size pools) - by comparison the city of Winnipeg (smaller
population) dumped the equivalent of 2300 Olympic size pools into our
river systems (an Olympic size pool holds 2,500,000 litres or 550,000
imperial gallons) Source - Toronto Star and Edmonton
Journal.
What is
required is an immediate action plan and proper funding to modernize
our water treatment facilities with the goal of
addressing the constant effluent leaks and high levels of
phosphorous emissions . These objectives can only be achieved through
the coordinated efforts of our three levels of government - city,
provincial, and federal.
To help expedite the process of
modernization of our water treatment facilities we are urging all
residents to contact their local political representatives whether it
be a city councillor, or an MLA, or an MP or all three indicating
your concern on the state of affairs regarding Lake Winnipeg and our
river systems. We simply cannot continue with the current state
of our water and sewage infrastructure system that is
broken .We cannot continue to kick these problems down the road -
these issues need to be resolved now.
Please feel free to use the information
provided in this letter in your communication to your elected
officials. And please note that it is not necessary to write volumes of
text, a simple paragraph will suffice.
We cannot stress enough, the value and
importance of sending these letters. Please share this email with your
friends, family and other community members to encourage them to write.
Thank you in advance for making time to do this.
Fred Veldink
Environment Committee Chair
