SLSA Newsletter Update - March 21, 2008

Our focus over the last 5 months continues to be the declining water levels of Skeleton Lake. The lake is like a leaky water bucket .We have been working hard to determine the source of the leaks, figure out how best to stop the leaks, determine why the leaks developed in the first place and establish if the bucket will fill back up through mother nature alone or whether we will have to intervene with some man made solutions. It has been determined that the "leaks" are primarily two fold:

1. Environmental factors including lower than normal precipitation and,

2. Man-made impacts of which the most significant is the water diversion to the village of Boyle.

Our studies have shown that the level of many of the Alberta lakes declined as a result of lower than normal precipitation from about 1997 to about 2002 and then levelled off and in some cases recovered when precipitation increased after 2002. Unlike most other lakes however, Skeleton Lake has continued to decline since 2002 due in large part to the water diverted to the village of Boyle. Obviously eliminating Boyle's diversion by finding an alternate source of water for Boyle will go a long way to stabilizing the lake level. Further natural decline or recovery will be a function of levels of precipitation and evaporation.

Once Boyle is off the lake we will be in a better position to make a determination as to whether the lake can recover on its own or whether a manmade diversion of water into the lake will be essential to the recovery of this lake. In the interim it is vital that water runoff to the lake within the watershed be as efficient as possible. Unfortunately there are many examples where spring runoff does not reach the lake because of poorly placed/blocked culverts, beaver dams and oil and gas roads that have no culverts. These issues need to be addressed on a priority basis and we will be looking to the association membership to help by identifying problem areas and participating in the resolution.

We hope to have an interactive section on our website where our members can report issues impeding water runoff.

Since Oct 07 the SLSA Board of Directors has been working hard to ensure that the Regional Water Supply System project is progressing quickly. This project includes a new water treatment plant in the town of Athabasca and a pipeline from Athabasca through Colinton to Boyle. Once completed Boyle will get all of its water from the Athabasca river through this pipeline and will no longer draw from Skeleton Lake. We have been advised that 90% of the funding for the pipeline has been approved (12.6 million of 14 million total cost).The section of pipeline from Athabasca to Colinton has been completed and Colinton now has a functional truck fill stop.

The SLSA Board of Directors has been lobbying the Aspen Regional Water Commission, the County, Alberta Environment and Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation to strongly encourage acceleration of the pipeline project. We also requested a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and are awaiting his response.

In our presentation to the County of Athabasca in Dec 07 we were told that the County would do everything possible to fast track the process for completing the remainder of the pipeline from Colinton to Boyle. Boyle has written to the town of Athabasca asking them to sell any surplus water they might have if the pipeline is finished before the Water Treatment Plant.

As many of you will know Alberta Environment levied an Enforcement Order on Boyle in Nov 07 which required Boyle to develop a Truck Fill Access Control Plan and both a short and long term Conservation Plan in an effort to ensure Boyle lives within their authorized diversion amount. In 2007 Boyle used 193.7 acre feet but are only authorized to divert 150 acre feet. The Alberta Environment District Compliance Manager has advised that he has not yet approved the Boyle Conservation Plans and therefore cannot share them with us. However SLSA has made it known to Boyle that we will do everything possible to help them in their endeavours to conserve water. To that end we are working on a Skeleton Lake Conservation Plan which will be the subject of a separate communiqué to the membership in a few weeks.

Please mark your calendars with the dates of our forthcoming annual town hall meetings as follows:

Edmonton Beverly Recreational center- 7:00 pm, 21 May 08

Boyle Community Center- 0930 am, 08 Jun 08

Your SLSA Board of Directors