Cyclists saddle up in aid of cleaner Lake Winnipeg

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This article was published 07/08/2024 (420 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans are going to great lengths, literally, to help save the province’s largest lake from harmful algae blooms.

Sixty-six cyclists will pedal more than 130 kilometres to Victoria Beach from Winnipeg Friday in support of the Lake Winnipeg Foundation.

Last year’s ride raised at least $160,000 to support the foundation’s work to lobby government to implement rescue measures for a lake plagued by nutrient overload.

Agricultural runoff and treated and untreated sewage that enter the lake via streams and rivers, such as the Red River, have caused overwhelming algae blooms that choke the lake’s oxygen supply for underwater life.

In recent years, the foundation has focused its energy on addressing high levels of phosphorus running into the lake from an enormous watershed that spans from Alberta, across some northern U.S. states, and next door in Ontario.

“We know that phosphorus is what causes the harmful algae blooms in Lake Winnipeg,” foundation board chair and environmental engineer Kathryn Dompierre said.

Water monitoring data has shown, Dompierre said, that Winnipeg’s north end sewage treatment plant is “the single largest source of phosphorus” for the lake.

“Year after year, that treatment plant has been letting out water that has phosphorus levels that are above the regulated limit by the provincial government,” Dompierre said.

Discharge levels weren’t to exceed 1 mg/litre, but the City of Winnipeg has been non-compliant for a 15-year period, with levels ranging from 2.9 mg/l to 4.3 mg/l between 2006 and 2021, the foundation said.

Owing to mechanical and infrastructure failures, millions of litres of raw sewage flowed into the Red River earlier this year and will also contribute to the problem.

Diluted sewage also regularly spills into the river during heavy rainfall and snow melt events which flood single pipes that carry precipitation and wastewater.

Last year, more than five billion litres of diluted sewage entered local rivers from Winnipeg’s sewer overflows.

The north end treatment plant is undergoing a phased, multibillion-dollar upgrade to increase treatment capacity and reduce algae-promoting nitrogen and phosphorus outflows. The city is challenged to pay for upgrades to the treatment plant, and the provincial government recently denied the city’s request to extend the completion deadline to 2032, from 2030.

“The lake is in serious trouble. We are seeing algal blooms, toxic algal blooms. There’s no more time to wait. The time is now. Lake Winnipeg, and all of our waterways in Manitoba, are a priority for this government,” Manitoba Environment Minister Tracy Schmidt said last month.

Meanwhile, the city introduced a chemical treatment in June it says will reduce the amount of phosphorus coming from the wastewater plant by up to 38 per cent.

Dimple Roy, water management director of the International Institute for Sustainable Development said the organization had helped advocate for the chemical treatment.

“We won’t see results overnight, but the fact that we’ve been able to tackle a massive problem through a small solution is worth celebrating,” Roy said.

Dompierre called the implementation a “huge win” following years of advocacy since 2019.

Dollars raised from the Bike to the Beach event, she said, are directly responsible for that.

Bike event chair Scott McDonald anticipates the challenging four- to five-hour bike up to Victoria Beach will raise well over the $100,000 target.

He’s responsible for starting the event five years ago, when around 30 cyclists raised $50,000 for the foundation.

Since then, the number of participants, along with the money raised each year, has increased.

McDonald’s children are now growing up on the lake, much like he did when his parents, both heavily involved with the foundation, began taking him up to Victoria Beach almost 50 years ago.

“It’s a place where families of multiple generations and extended family bond — it’s the central point of it all,” he said.

There’s algae issues on the lake this summer, like any other, McDonald said, but so far no massive blooms have washed ashore.

“We’d like the lake to be as healthy as the community,” he said.

To get there, Roy said upstream solutions are critical for Lake Winnipeg’s future.

The institute is experimenting with “floating wetlands” that soak up phosphorus, and water-retention systems on agricultural land to pace the flow of water that enters the watershed.

“The solution lies in the watershed; that’s where the phosphorus is coming from,” she said.

Roy finds optimism in the growing awareness of the lake’s declining water quality, along with other issues such as the devastation caused by zebra mussels.

She said leveraging the attention will help ensure there’s “cleaner, better water for generations to come.”

Dompierre said the foundation is next targeting runoff into the watershed from agricultural fertilizers and animal waste.

“It’s a huge watershed, the reason why we have such high phosphorus (levels) and so many algae blooms is because Lake Winnipeg is in a very agricultural area,” Dompierre explained.

Along with a strengthened agriculture stewardship program, the foundation is looking to water samples collected by volunteers to target problem areas where farming practices could be improved.

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

jordan.snobelen@freepress.mb.ca