Letter from the GLWS President | June 25, 2024

Presidents Letter to the GLWS Membership

We continue with three major initiatives designed to restore the lake level. The purpose of this letter is to update members between general meetings. I have also attached a new level graph updated to 2024 showing the lake just held its own over the winter. 
 
On June 4^th we participated in two important meetings related to lake level.
The first was an on-site meeting with Alberta Environment and Alberta Agriculture at the Gull Lake stabilization pump house where we reviewed how the filter would be installed in the 30-inch pipeline leaving the pump house towards the lake. We discussed the Stantec estimate of $570,000 for the filter installation and agreed that should be relatively easy to raise given the importance of the lake.
Then that afternoon we attended a meeting of the committee of the whole of the Lacombe County Council where presentations were given on all the initiatives that are underway to restore the lake level
It was a very informative meeting, there were four presentations;

1. Lon Kasha on the aquifer pumping project described the HCL study work and potential well requirements and capital costs. Lon made good points about The aquifer pumping as the Haynes is much deeper than 99.9% of existing water wells and they are not hydraulically connected. The aquifer is immense and constantly recharged from the mountains. Lon also made the point that once developed the wells could be used occasionally for other things such as Firefighting and other emergency uses for stock etc. This seemed to overcome concerns expressed by rural folk about possible competition for well water
2. Bruce’s rout on the land use changes and highway blockages of the drainage basin that have probably contributed to the lake’s decline and potential study plans. Bruce is seeking funding and a consultant to undertake a study on land use changes and linear blockages to our drainage basin. His view is that contributed to our decline since the 1920s.
3. Carlin Soehn of Alberta Agriculture WIOB on adding filtration To the existing stabilization, He described the process under way to get an application into Alberta Environment including stakeholder engagement. The key steps are the completion of a hydrology study to demonstrate the importance of stabilization and the stakeholder engagement package. We’re expecting that there will be stakeholder meetings during August to get questions and possible concerns out of the way before the application. We are expecting the results of the hydrology study next week.
4. Angela Fulton the lead for Alberta environment water approvals covered water licenses and pointed out that the stabilization system has a large water license and answered questions.

So it was a pretty complete story. MY impression was that Lacombe council questions were very positive and there is council support for restoring the lake by all three mechanisms. It was generally agreed that adding filtration to the stabilization system would be the earliest way and the others are going to take longer but that we should continue to pursue all three. We will likely plan a similar meeting at Ponoka County later this summer.
 
We have just received the draft hydrology report from Alberta Agriculture and had a chance for a quick review. My preliminary review of the report confirms the value of the stabilization system:

1. over the last 47 years, the stabilization system has raised the lake by approx. 1 meter or over 3 feet from what it otherwise would have been. Imagine the lake 3 feet lower.
2. The lake would be 0.4m  higher yet if pumping had not been suspended since 2018 and if the trigger level where pumping starts was raised to within 2cm of the target.
3. There was enough water available from the river over the last 47 years to counteract the natural decline of the lake and in fact, with unrestrained pumping the lake could be 3.7 m higher than now.

 
Charitable registration
Given the active projects underway we realized that we would have an increased need for funding so we wanted to be able to give donors a tax-deductible receipt. The application to the Canada Revenue Agency was completed and we have answered questions and we hope to have charitable status in the next few months. Neil Skinner did the volunteer work to get the application complete. Dealing with the federal CRA does not proceed real quickly.
In the interim before registration, our arrangement with the summer village of Gull Lake where they receive funds and issue taxable receipts worked for several large donations.
We appreciate those of you who have already donated money to the GLWS in 2023 directly and we are issuing receipts to you, Unfortunately not yet tax deductible.  
 
Alix and Buffalo Lake
As members know many lakes in Alberta are suffering from falling levels due to the current drought but we have a particular kinship with both Alix and Buffalo Lake as they have a stabilization system that pumps from the Red Deer River and is also shut down due to carp in that river. Lacombe County stretches over to Buffalo Lake so there were comments from the council about how our progress would benefit there as well
 
Membership and graphics
Board members Henry Brander and Jeremy Crawford have continued with their efforts to expand our membership and maintain a communication system with over 2400 members.
 
We will try to keep members informed as we address these important issues that face our lake. We also post this information on our website here > https://gulllakewatershed.ca/news-events/

Best wishes to all for Summer 2024.

W Norval Horner
President, GLWS

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Please direct all questions or comments to our email address info@gulllakewatershed.ca.