Reproduced with permission from the ROCKY VIEW/FIVE VILLAGE WEEKLY

Official Newspaper for the M.D. of Rocky View #44 Volume 29, April 30, 2002.

Chestermere Lake not radioactive; study concludes.

Enrique Massot

Those who swim in Chestermere Lake definitely won’ be glowing in the dark, said the head of the Environmental Science program of the University of Calgary during the release of the most comprehensive study done to date on the water and sediments of the lake.

"There is absolutely, unequivocally, no delectable radiation in Chestermere Lake said Elisabeth Dixon.

Dixon said Saturday at the Chestermere Regional Recreation Centre that a study conducted by 30 fourth year university students during the winter tested sediment coming from five different points in the lake in order to set the record straight, after a report published last summer by a major Calgary newspaper stated radioactivity had been found in the lake.

Due to reports of radioactive strontium in the lake, we tested the sediments for radioactivity using liquid scintillation counting’’ told student Jerry Vanden Berg to an audience of local residents and stakeholders.

"Measurable activity in the sediments did not exceed that of an empty vial" he said.

"There is absolutely, unequivocally, no detectable radiation in Chestermere Lake." Elisabeth Dixon, head of U of C’s Environmental Science program.

Although some of the sediment samples showed the level of some metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc are about or higher than some of the guidelines for protection of aquatic life, none of them is a serious threat to human health according to the guidelines set by the Canadian Council of Ministers for the Environment (CCME).

‘‘There are zinc and copper accumulating in the sediments that are getting to slightly high levels, getting up to some the guidelines level, but they are not very toxic ones,’’ said Dixon, who added that mercury which has been tested for the first time, is at a level lower than expected.

"Of all the toxic ones, lead is the one that is beginning to emerge, but that is coming from all the urban runoff in the city,’ Dixon said

Chestermere Lake was created to serve as a storage basin and settling pond for the Western Irrigation District. and received initially water from the Bow River, directed for irrigation and drinking water to Strathmore and other downstream communities.

But the lake became increasingly a storm water recipient of the City of Calgary, when three storm water outfalls discharging into the lake in 1963 progressively grew to 34 outfalls, carrying large amounts of sediments and pollutants into the lake.

Loss of depth of over six feet in some areas of the lake was reported in a previous report prepared for Chestermere by Aquality Environmental Consulting . A shallower lake allows for sunlight to reach the bottom, spurring massive weed growth.

Michelle Rayburn one of the students researching the history of the lake since its construction by the Canadian Pacific Railway early in the century described the process leading to the Western Irrigation District selling the lands around the lake, and the subsequent creation of a summer village in 1977.

The process contained a major contradiction that Chestermere is still trying to solve, said Rayburn.

"The lake was created as a reservoir but advertised as a recreation facility."

Yin Deong with the City of Calgary said the city is requiring that developers and builders implement low-impact subdivisions, which are designed to minimise rounoff. Deong said the Shepard Wetland Complex is progressing towards expropriation of lands needed for the project, with the project, with the project taking off during spring. Once implemented, the new wetland complex would take much of the storm water presently diverted into Chestermere Lake.

Clr. Heather Davies said now that the study has revealed what sorts of materials are contained in the lake’s sediments, it is time to work towards the dredging proposal, without which the lake will progressively become a shallow, wide river in the future.

"Basically what is left, is the dredging proposal. Let us proceed with that." She said.

Heather Robertson, who was in charge of researching on community concerns and conducted a telephone survey of 200 residents in Chestermere and Strathmore, said most residents felt that the City of Calgary should pay for weed removal in the lake.

Peter Watson, Alberta Environment for the Bow Region, said water issues are challenges requiring multiple stakeholders to work together.

"The residents of the City of Calgary, landowners in Rocky View, the province and the WID. We are in this together." he said.

The study Chestermere Lake: Past, Present and Future can be viewed at www.ucalgary.ca/~alnorman/