News Release: Long Lake Stewardship

On Thursday April 24, 2014, the Long Lake Stewardship (LLS) had a meeting with Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk to ask for her help to save the lakes in the City of Greater Sudbury. Fourteen lakes in the city now have health warnings issued by the Sudbury and District Health Unit due to cyanobacteria (Blue Green Algae) blooms. The stewardship presented to the mayor the problems the stewardship is facing in trying to make their lake safe. The same corrective steps would stop BGA blooms in most of the lakes experiencing the blooms.

The problems presented were:

1.        Source Water Protection Committee only looks at three water bodies within the city.

The LLS is asking the mayor to expand the role of the SWPC to include all lakes in the city that have had BGA blooms.

2.        The city formed a Lake Advisory Panel in 2001 to advise council on lake issues. The panel in 14 years has failed to advise council on any issues facing Sudbury citizens. The LLS told the mayor that the selection of panel members and interference by city staff has made the panel unworkable. Several examples of how the panel has failed were given by LLS. Included was the fact that despite several presentations by LLS about BGA blooms, the panel has never advised council of the simple steps necessary to stop BGA blooms in Sudbury. The mayor and council have not been notified that approximately one third of all BGA blooms in the Province of Ontario occur right here in Sudbury. LLS asked the mayor for a review, by an outside independent committee, of how the panel operates and to make the necessary changes so it can properly advise council.

3.        Invasive species is a very serious problem in Ontario, yet the Sudbury MNR does not have a monitoring program as other MNR offices have. Other offices have been monitoring for years throughout the province. LLS asked the mayor to write a letter to MNR requesting that the same Invasive Species program be implemented for the City of Greater Sudbury.

4.        The city has, through poor planning and inexperience by city staff wasted approximately $927,000 dollars in recent years with failed lake water programs. These would include $650,000 for the Lake Resonator Program, $155,000 for the milfoil weevil program, $22,000 to create a restored lake front demonstration site and most recently $100,000 for a Lake Capacity study that was so full of mistakes it failed to show any reliable results. LLS advised the mayor that a simple review by readily available scientists at the Laurentian University Living with Lakes Centre would have shown that these dollars were going to be wasted by city staff. A Living with Lakes representative at the meeting told the mayor that the centre was there for the city to use and welcomed the role of advising the city.

5.        LLS told the mayor that city staff is consistently issuing building permits that do not follow city by-laws. In 2012 all eight houses under construction on Long Lake did not follow city by-laws. These infractions included a failure to maintain the mandatory 12m setback from the lake and the city by-law that restricts the destruction of city shoreline within 12 M of a water body. The 12m closest to any water body shoreline is crucial to maintain if a lake is to remain healthy. LLS asked the mayor to request that the city auditor complete a study of all water front building permits to see whether city by-laws are being followed. The mayor was told that meetings with city staff have resulted in no progress to stop this practice.

6.        LLS told the mayor that the Sudbury office of MNR is routinely issuing building permits that violate city by-laws. LLS asked the mayor to write a letter MNR requesting that MNR adhere to city by-laws.

7.        LLS informed the mayor that in 2006 a detailed study was initiated by the province of Ontario to study Lake Simcoe which was experiencing similar problems to that which Sudbury is now experiencing. LLS asked the mayor to approach the province to request a similar study for the lakes in the city, with the Laurentian Living with Lakes scientists heading up the study.

8.        More than 12 years ago the Province of Ontario issued guidelines on how to inspect existing field beds for properties on water bodies. Many communities have been completing these inspections for over 10 years. Some communities are finding the failure rate to be in the 25% range. Phosphates leaking from these failed field beds are the number one cause for BGA blooms. City staff and the Sudbury and District Health Unit have resisted all attempts by LLS to have the same inspection programs for Sudbury water front field beds. The cost per home is the range of $15.00 per home per year. The inspections would be done every 5 years. The Sudbury Source Water Protection Committee is presently completing these inspections on Ramsey Lake. LLS asked the mayor to implement these inspections on all water front properties in Sudbury.

In summary, LLS told the mayor that over 20,000 of her citizens are consuming water the Sudbury and District Health Unit has issued health warnings against. Though there are multiple government agencies that are responsible for the health of a lake, the buck stops with the City of Greater Sudbury which is responsible to ensure all its citizens have   potable water. The CGS is doing the opposite, it is actually causing the decline of city lakes by poor practices by staff and it’s unwillingness to act in correcting known problems. The high, localized rate of BGA blooms in the city is very large red flag that all is not well. The sad fact is that the steps necessary to fix most of the lakes are well known and easy to implement but nothing is being done.

LLS asked the Mayor Matichuk to form a review committee, using the expertise of the Living with Lakes scientists as the corner stone, and independent of staff and others who have dominated the LAP for the past years, to review the health of our lakes and determine what steps should be taken to start them on the path of being healthy again.