Water experts raised the alarm in 1974 about Lake Winnipeg's algae invasion, according to newly released cabinet documents.
But five successive provincial governments waited more than 30 years to take action, allowing the nutrients now choking the lake to grow by more than 50 per cent.
A bloom of green algae appeared at Victoria Beach on Sunday, making swimming nearly impossible.
"In a very real sense, the industries, farms and urban centres in the Lake Winnipeg drainage basin are utilizing Lake Winnipeg as a receiving pond for their wastes and by-products," wrote a Canada-Manitoba task force that reported to then-NDP-Premier Ed Schreyer's cabinet. "It is extremely important that activities in the drainage basin be managed so as not to jeopardize other uses of the lake."
The task force recommended the province and Ottawa spend more than $2 million for a three-year study of nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen that flow into the lake and create a management plan for the Lake Winnipeg basin to reduce the nutrient concentration.
The 42-page report was included in a huge batch of cabinet documents from Premier Ed Schreyer's era that were recently unsealed. Provincial legislation allows the public access to the reports and deliberations of senior political leaders after 30 years.
Much of the action proposed didn't really get started until recently. Five provincial governments - Schreyer's and those of Tory Premier Sterling Lyon, NDP Premier Howard Pawley, Tory Premier Gary Filmon and NDP Premier Gary Doer - failed to reduce the flow of nutrients into Lake Winnipeg that threaten commercial fisheries, recreation and aquatic life.
Only in the last several years has the Doer government updated livestock regulations, moved to ban lawn fertilizer and dishwasher soap with phosphorus and forced the city of Winnipeg to overhaul its sewage treatment.
"We didn't have the action we needed under both NDP and Tory governments, let's just be very honest about that," said Water Stewardship Minister Christine Melnick. "But we've brought about any number of changes - the buffer zones, the ban on dish soap. We've created the first and only department of water stewardship in Canada."
Those changes have yet to produce any noticeable improvements to the health of Lake Winnipeg. The concentration of nutrients in the lake isn't yet on the decline, according to one expert.
"I have to be honest, as yet there is no indication the situation has improved on the lake," said Al Kristofferson, managing director of the Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium in Gimli. "But the good news is there is more awareness. We need to stop the speeding train and back it up."
Bill Barlow, chairman of the Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board, said it's taken 30 years to mess up the lake and it could take years to fix it. Later this year, his advocacy group will report on the province's progress on 135 recommendations the LWSB made in 2006 to clean up the lake.
"There's a whole lot of action," said Barlow. "I don't think we'll be reporting that the phosphorous load is decreasing, though, but the first challenge is to get the graph line to stabilize."
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
