Greetings Letter – June 30, 2023

Hello and greetings to all of our Gull Lake Watershed Society (GLWS) members.

We report that our membership has grown from 54 persons on April 29 to 351 persons on May 29 to 960 persons on June 29 and we seem to be growing by leaps and bounds each day while we as a small not-for-profit society are so grateful to each and every one of our members. Our goal is 5,000 members by the end of September of this 2023 year and still onward from there.

We need as many members as possible to eventually engage the Alberta Government’s Environment and Protected Areas ministry (AEPA) who have (in this writer’s opinion anyway) clearly displayed an unresponsive position towards our Gull dropping water levels and the serious problems attached thereto while those levels are expected to drop even further as time goes on. AEPA also appears not concerned about the effects the lower water levels must be having on our in-water plant and animal life with more shallow lake waters certainly warming, our lakeside land plant and animal life must be feeling adverse effects of receding water levels from lakeshore edges, not to mention the negative effects on commercial businesses around the lake, property owners, tourists, boaters, campers, picnickers, fishermen and women, beach lovers and other water sports enthusiasts who just enjoy our pristine lake.

Some Information

• The Preferred Level of the lake is 899.46 meters above sea level as requested by several community groups and societies around the lake over the last many years. AEPA not at all interested
• The Target Level as set by AEPA is 899.16 which is presently not achievable as little to no in-flow is serving our lake—a situation that can be so easily and quickly remedied if only AEPA would listen but again, they appear “just not interested” 
• The Trigger Level to energize the stabilization pumps at the Blindman River pumping station is 898.90 but again not achievable as AEPA revoked the water license back in 2018 to pump because of the discovery of Prussian Carp in the Blindman River which in itself was the right thing to do at the time, however, since that time have sat on their thumbs to rectify the problem in spite of the efforts of the Gull Lake Watershed Society and others to convince AEPA with engineering reports, witnessed on-site prototype presentations, etc. that pumping and subsequent stabilization could easily be resumed using the Pressurized Filtration System as was witnessed as 100% effective and stated as such in the Stantec Engineering Reports of February 2022, and also, at the same time used all over North America, yet, AEPA again just not interested.
• The Present Level of the lake is 898.55 (as at June 29/23) resulting in 36.4” lower than Preferred Level, 24.4” lower than Target Level, and 14.0” lower than Trigger Level.

We have at this stage already lost large portions of Gull Lake due to loss of in-flow and without in-flow, more loss is expected, however, this simply does not need to be. The Peter Lougheed government repaired this problem back in 1977 by introducing the stabilization machinery required to stabilize Gull Lake water levels and that stabilization worked wonderfully for 41 years until 2018 today’s 2023 problem can be so easily repaired, however, when a seemingly uncaring government ministry holds all the authorities while at the same time refuses to act or refuses to even listen to the available science presented to them, it then goes to the “Power of the People” to force our provincial government to make that ministry listen and act and that my friends are where we as a membership are headed.

The more members we have, the stronger our voice becomes. Please spread the word to your family members, friends, neighbors, community groups, workmates, and anyone else who appreciates and enjoys our pristine Gull Lake.

Our society’s website “Gull Lake Watershed Society” contains a page entitled “Membership” which asks only 3 questions-first name, last name, and e-mail address. There is no charge to belong to our society but we really need as many members as possible to combat the powerful yet seemingly uncaring AEPA.

Regards:
Henry Brander
GLWS Membership Director