SLSA - Skeleton Lake Stewartship Association

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SLSA's Response To Comments We Often Hear

We continue to hear that the reason the lake is down is due to the drought OR that this is just a normal cycle the lake is going through, OR that our efforts are futile because you cannot fight Mother Nature. Rest assured - we have asked these same questions of ourselves before taking on the task of restoring the lake as none of the people involved in this effort want to waste their time on a futile effort. We have looked at the scientific evidence and are confident we are doing the right thing and that the problem the lake is going through right now can be resolved. We thought we would take this opportunity to respond to some of the comments and concerns that we frequently hear.

Comment: The lake is down due to the drought and will come back as soon as we get some rain.

Answer: This is simply not the case. The lake has dropped 5-1/2 feet since June 30, 1997. Over the eight full years since that time (1998 to and including 2005), there was only one year that qualified as a drought. That was 2002 when the Boyle area received only 47% of its normal precipitation. From 2003 to 2005, we received 103%, 104% and 98% of the usual precipitation and the lake still continued to decline. Below is a chart containing the exact precipitation amounts from 1998 to present. You will see that the normal annual precipitation over the past 41 years has been 392 mm (15.4 inches) per year and we have had precipitation around those levels for five out of the last six years. However, the lake level dropped almost three feet in those six years.

PRECIPITATION & LAKE LEVEL SINCE 1997

YEAR	PRECIPITATION			LAKE LEVEL DROP
	mm	% of average**	inches	meters	inches
1998	322	82	12.7	-0.36	-14
1999	284	72	11.2	-0.277	-11
2000	441	113	17.36	-0.103	-4
2001	369	94	14.5	-0.252	-10
2002	187	47	7.36	-0.240	-9.5
2003	402	103	15.8	-0.065	-2.5
2004	406	104	16.0	-0.060	-2.3
2005	385	98	15.2	-0.032	-1.25
2006

**Average precipitation over a 41 year period from 1965 to 2006 was 392 mm (15.43 inches) per year

Comment: This is just a normal cycle. The Narrows dried up once before around 1940, so this has happened before and the lake recovered. We don't need to worry the lake will come back on its own.

Answer: We have heard this from various sources and have done some investigations. The information we have received is that all of the lakes in the area were extremely low in the 1940's when the Narrows had dried up previously. That is not the case today - some of our neighbouring lakes are currently overflowing! Many lakes in Northern Alberta had seen a decline half a dozen years ago, but they have all recovered except for Skeleton Lake. The only other exception is North Buck Lake, but North Buck Lake's decline has plateaued and does not continue. Skeleton Lake continues to decline. The situation in the 1940's when the Narrows dried up was the result of an extremely dry period of time for the entire region and, as you can see from the precipitation chart above, that is not what has been occurring this time around.

We believe that there are a number of factors at work today that were not in play in 1940. Those factors include:

Today, there are 920 lots around the lake which are impacting on consumption of lake water and impeding drainage into the lake;
Boyle is diverting approximately 50 million gallons per year out of the lake for their domestic water supply;
Roads and development outside of the immediate lake area have impeded traditional water course drainage into the lake;
Global warming.

All of the above factors are impacting on the lake today, moving the lake out of a water equilibrium situation where water intake equals water outtake to a situation where water outtake is exceeding water intake. If we do not get the lake back into equilibrium, we will lose it.

Comment: You can't fight Mother Nature.

Answer: Maybe not - but you can sure give her a helping hand when she's in trouble. Skeleton Lake has a very fragile watershed ratio of four-to-one. Alberta Environment tells us that the absolute minimum watershed ratio needed to sustain a lake, is somewhere between three-to-one and four-to-one. Because Skeleton Lake is so close to this minimal sustainable ratio of land area that drains into the lake, we need to be careful not to upset inflow and outflow. We believe we can get the lake back to equilibrium where inflow equals outflow, but once we do that, the lake will still be five or six feet lower than it was less than a decade ago. Accordingly, we believe it is necessary to put another four or five feet of water back into the lake once we attain equilibrium. We have conducted engineering feasibility studies and know that it is possible to do this. All we want to do is give Mother Nature a helping hand.