Quiet Enjoyment Initiative Rejected by the Town of Sylvan Lake

The Sylvan Lake News reported on a decision of the Town of Sylvan Lake council on February 12 to decline a request for funding for the Quiet Enjoyment Initiative (QEI). The  QEI project of the SLWSS champions the rights of all Sylvan Lake shoreline populations to enjoy the watershed without disturbance by inconsiderate operators of …

Well Water Quality in the Sylvan Lake Watershed

The Alberta Health well water database is now accessible online. It contains records for 71,698 Alberta wells that were submitted for analysis since 2002 by private well owners. Click on this link to reach the homepage of the website. A tutorial is presented to coach viewers on its use. Following are some screen capture views of …

Report on the RDRWA’s Winter Lake Day Meeting at Gull Lake

Nicole Kimmel from Alberta Agriculture and Forestry reported on the spread of the invasive Flowering Rush aquatic plant that has been observed in water bodies near Sylvan Lake. Additional advice is posted on the department's website: Aquatic invasive weeds from Environment & parks website Respect our lakes highlights vegetation removal and approvals Don’t Let it …

Who is Extracting Sylvan Lake Watershed Groundwater?

The SLWSS monitors groundwater consumption. Much of that well-water withdrawal is eventually exported from the watershed's surface and underground inventory as community wastewater. It is collected and processed by the Town of Sylvan Lake in its sewage lagoons. To help treated effluent on its way through Cygnet Lake to the Red Deer River, a comparable …

The Sylvan Lake Groundwater Situation in Perspective and Pictures

The Sylvan Lake watershed and its supply of groundwater are dependent on a fine balance between incoming and outgoing water. The net amount is absorbed and stored underground in the soil, porous and permeable geological glacial deposits, and local aquifers and becomes available for domestic and agricultural use. The following ERCB/AGS maps included in this …

What Happens Under Sylvan Lake Ice in Winter?

In all our monitoring programs we focus on Sylvan Lake water quality , yet the records show that those data don’t change very fast. In comparison, lake water temperature (T) does cycle dramatically as it can vary from near zero Celsius (C) under the ice and 4 C above the sediment in the winter, to as …

Is There Evidence for Climate Change in the Sylvan Lake Watershed?

In his book “Landscapes and Cycles” Jim Steele, an authority on the ecosystems of the Sierra Nevada in California, makes a simple and obvious point about climate change: local climate variables, not global ones, drive locally observable climate change. See the Landscapes and Cycles website for case histories and examples of ecological change. So, what …