GLWS Board Meeting Minutes

GLWS Board Meeting on September 26, 2023 (Zoom Call Meeting)

The meeting called to order at 7:31 pm by Norval present Paul, Jeremy, Keith, Craig, Lon, Wendy, and Henry were slightly late

Action items:

1. Societies Act. Norval informed directors that he had updated the Societies return and sent it in this would normally be done by the secretary.
2. New Director. Norval informed the director that a person had stepped forward from Birch Bay and was willing to join the board of the GLWS. A motion was made by Norval, seconded by Keith Nesbitt that David Hulcin be made a Director for the Birch Bay area. Motion was approved
3. Norval mentioned that a secretary is still needed. Duties are not time-consuming and duties required can be obtained from Norval
4. Lon gave an update and review on the proposed study of the Haynes/Paskapoo Aquifer. Keith clarified that this does not replace our present thrust on filtration. It is proposed that we will study this as another water source as we move ahead with the filtration project on the existing Blindman stabilization.
   
   1. Lon spoke on the aquifer overview and potential plans, HCL Study Objectives, Study Costs, potential additional costs, well locations, etc.
   2. At present we have $9000.00 donated for the study costs with an estimated cost of $12,000.00 plus costs for lab work, etc., possibly up to a total cost of $20,000.00. It was agreed that we would fund the $3000 balance of the initial $12,000 study costs from our existing GLWS account, Treasurer Craig advised we have a balance of just under $5000.
   3. Jeremy and Henry both pointed out that it appears people are anxious to donate and that with charitable status we could expect considerable inflow.
   4. Lon will endeavor to get on the agenda of both counties for their October meetings to ask for additional funding and he will meet with both Lance and Glenn Frazier to request funding. That would cover any overruns or the second phase of the study.
   5. Lon provided initial numbers on costs for the Aquifer pumping. Well costs would be approx. $70/f.t resulting in costs of $200,000/400,000 per well pair. (Well and observation well.) If a well pair is capable of 3000 cubic meters a day then it would take five such well pairs and >$2 million to generate the 5 million m3/yr equal to the existing water license for the Blindman stabilization. We discussed funding including donations, possible money from Counties, and Provincial and Federal grants. All will be looked into.
   6. Both Wendy and Paul commented on the potential federal approval requirements, DFO, and possibly navigable waters protection.
5. Lon commented that we should be pursuing stabilization and other potential water sources as the flows in the river have been low for the last two years.
6. We discussed apparent progress with the Provincial Government on the filtration system for the Blindman River pumping station. As outlined in Norval’s President’s letter Alberta Agriculture is going to fund a hydrological study to resolve controversy on stabilization benefits to lake level and is planning to apply for filter installation. ( filter is currently estimated at $0.5 million but the pump station would benefit from additional expenditures for efficiency upgrades) our next meeting with agriculture and environment is set for November 3^rd.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm

Gull Lake Watershed Society

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*** FRAUDULENT EMAILS ALERT ***

Two current and two former GLWS directors have received fraudulent emails that look like they came from me. Two recently and two over a month ago. As you can see I have a Shaw Webmail address but they came from an address that said presidentpost784@gmail. We reviewed this with Shaw and it does not appear that I have been hacked because we don’t see them in our sent items and they don’t come from our email.
Former director Doug Bradley told me that he thought he had been hacked and perhaps they copied an e-mail from me to the former list of directors and then started sending fraudulent emails to individual directors on that list from a fraudulent address asking for money or gift cards.

Please be on the lookout for this and let me know if you see it, obviously, I will not be asking you for money or gift cards. Jeremy and I will be discussing what other action might be appropriate.

Regards,

Norval Horner
GLWS President