The
data gathering portion of the water quality monitoring program in The Township
of the Archipelago is now concluded for the year 2000. This will be the first full year of
collected data, as the program got off to a late start last year leaving us with
an incomplete profile on all of the sites tested. But this year, in the South Channel
area, we conducted a total of 100 tests 14 separate sites between May 5 and
October 23.
All
of the general locations in the South Channel area were tested at least
once. Some sites were tested at
approximately 2 week intervals over the entire period, some sites less often and
some were tested only once or twice, the frequency being determined by previous
test results. The water in the
South Channel proper, mainly because of the rapid exchange of water, tested
quite good for the most part, as did that of all of Five Mile Bay, with the
exception of the area next to Squaw Channel. Tests done at Redner Bay, Kineras Bay
Seven Mile Bay, and Menomenee Channel gave poorer results. And at times it was poor enough to be of
concern. The Seguin River area
could always be relied upon to give very bad readings.
Dr. Scheifer, in his analysis of the 1999 testing results made some
observations that I feel will be reinforced by the data of the year 2000. All of the areas that produced the
poorer test results were bays with lesser water exchanges. They also contained more cottages and
those generally were older cottages.
Most importantly, the poor test figures seem to be tied directly to use
and occupancy. With the exception
of the Sequin River, all test sites produced relatively good results through May
and June. By August the readings in
the cottage bays had deteriorated and continued to do so through Labour
Day. By the end of October the
cottage bays were once more producing good test results.
We are only able to test the water in larger neighborhood areas, but not
at individual cottage locations.
Cottagers concerned about their own drinking water should still obtain a
sample bottle from the Ministry of Health at Parry Sound and then return it
filled with tap water. Do not fill
directly from the lake. In our
testing program we are not testing
drinking water. In fact the
Ministry of Health does not consider water from any open source as drinking
water, no matter what that source may be.
As for our own experience, we found that none of the sites that we monitored
this year proved to be 100% free of E. coli 100% of the time.
The Ministry deems water with a total coliform count of 100-150 to be
clean and any water with counts of 50-100 total coliform and no more than 10 E.
coli to be acceptable for public beaches.
The E. coli standard for drinking water is a count of
0.
We are anxious see Dr. Schiefer’s analysis of the data that we collected
this year. We anticipate it
to be available by the start of the year 2001 cycle and will report on it at
that time.
Stan Topping