On behalf of the MLBMS we would like to thank all of our members who attended the AGM on July 8th at the Centennial Center! We had a great turnout – we estimate there were over 100 of our members in attendance!
Prior to the beginning of the meeting, Cheryl Schewe collected updated email addresses from the membership and Kristy Myshaniuk passed out SAVE MURIEL LAKE bumperstickers while the rest of the Board of Directors greeted incoming members.
Lyall Kortzman, the president of the MLBMS chaired the meeting. See the following draft of the AGM minutes. This draft is subject to review by the Board, and is only provided at this time as a brief summary of the meeting:
Minutes, AGM July 8, 2012
Following the AGM, Richard Charboylo (Acting Regional Manager for Northern Region), Ernst Kerkhoven (Hydrologist), Brent Welsh (groundwater/hydrologist), and Abi Saidomar (Water Resource Manager) of the Alberta Government presented the Alberta Government’s data and position on Muriel Lake’s water problems. The members in attendance were given the opportunity to ask questions to the Alberta Government representatives as they heard data and information on potential climate trends, groundwater information, and surface disruptions as well as possible things that could be done to encourage or fill Muriel Lake. The powerpoint presentations have been requested and we hope they will be provided soon.
As a very, very brief summary, we heard that the Alberta Government is of the opinion that:
(1) A lake water balance equation showing basic water in versus water out can explain the lake water decline at Muriel Lake. By their calculations a 4 meter drop was expected over 30 years an this is what happened.
(2) The Alberta government is not motivated to support another study of Muriel Lake because they are of the position that the lake water decrease is 90% a result of climate (percipitation, evaporation, run off, and a little surface water drainage). The Government is not motived to find out whether climate is 90% to blame, 95% to blame, or 97% to blame…
(3) Muriel Lake’s water level is much lower than it has ever been. Although the lowest level recorded prior to this was estimated to be 5-7 years before 1949.
(4) Any increase in Muriel Lake will largely depend on future percipitation and temperatures.
(5) Muriel Lake is healty in the winter (means the lake holds water), and unhealthy in the summer which suggests that the loss of water of Muriel Lake is due to evaporation. These trends are natural.
(6) There are some infrastructural problems: Reita Lake cannot flow into Muriel Lake, there are few active Beaver Dams and those dams are not holding back that much water so it is not worth it to remove them.
(7) Potentially moving water by pipeline from the North Saskatchewan River into Muriel lake by pipeline would be too costly and ineffective. The government is not in the business of moving water this way any more. The current political environment is such that “we are not going to go around correcting mother nature.”
The MLBMS disagrees with many of these conclusions and has suggested that further information is needed. The Board of Directors is currently in the process of drafting a response letter to the Government and is patiently awaiting the govenrment’s powerpoint presentations so we can go over the information provided in more detail.
The following are photos from the AGM and government presentation:
There were many inspiring and insightful questions put to the Alberta Government representatives by our membership. To mention a few:
(a) Even though the government may feel an action will only increase the water level of Muriel Lake a little, this little bit of water is meaningful to the people of Muriel Lake.
(b) The vast majority of the data presented by the Alberta Government was based on regional data (for a very large portion of the province) and little date specific to Muriel Lake was presented. Geographically percise data is needed to draw conclusions specific to Muriel Lake.
(c) One way to help increase the water level of Muriel Lake is to focus on all the little solutions (moving a beaver dam, cleaning a culvert, etc) to ensure all surface water gets back to the lake.
(d) Questions over the data presented about Reita Lake, as many members remember drainage differently than what was presented.
This is not meant to be a thorough summary of the information presented, conclusions arrived at, or the questions presented by the membership. These thoughts were put together from one of our members notes of the meeting.
We would again like to thank all of our membership for the support and encouragement. The MLBMS Board of Directors will continue working hard on your behalf. We would also like to welcome new members to the Board – Jan Ramful and Keith Justik-Ackerman!
We hope to catch up on correspondence over the next little while and get right back into the swing of things with our regular monthly meetings.
