EAGLE VALLEY
NEWS
Input sought for labour market recovery plan Page 3
ERS leaves big impression at conference Page 7
Wednesday, May 27, 2015 PM40008236
Vol. 60 No. 20 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.25 (GST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com
Algae bloom reported in Shuswap
Watershed council: Residents stress need for better watershed management. By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
Another algae bloom in the Shuswap has residents concerned for the health and protection of the region’s lakes. Reports of a yellow-brown substance floating just below the surface of Mara Lake began to pop up late Thursday. On Friday, May 22 the bloom was spotted from Two Mile, and later in Shuswap Lake. Salmon Arm biologist Jeremy Ayotte said he and five others were on a canoe excursion Friday, paddling along the east side of Shuswap Lake toward Anstey Arm, when they encountered a “yellow-orange mat of algae hovering about a metre below the surface.” “It was patchy in places, sometimes whispy and thin,” Ayotte explained in an email. “In other places it appeared to be a solid mass. There was no smell, but it also didn’t appear to break the surface of the lake.” Ayotte said the algae didn’t extend north of the narrows, noting “the nutrient-laden
Cloudy concern: Clouds of a yellow-brown substance, believed to be algae, were seen in Mara (above) and Shuswap lakes Thursday evening and Friday, May 21 and 22, during the warm weather. Photo contributed water from Salmon and Shuswap rivers flow west through the narrows, “and the bloom likely wouldn’t spread into the cooler, cleaner waters of the Anstey Arm.” The bloom was reported Friday to the Ministry of Environment, which did not provide its findings before press time. Ayotte, however, said last week’s weather and lake conditions – unusually warm temperatures and calm waters – were conducive to algae blooms, as seen in Shuswap Lake in 2008, and in Shuswap and Mara lakes in 2010.
“It’s the canary in the mine shaft thing that we need to watch for,” Ayotte told the News. “It’s that algae that’s going to tell us when the nutrient regime is out of balance, or out of whack in the lake.” Ayotte says this third bloom stresses the need for better management of the Shuswap watershed. Shuswap Environmental Action Society president Jim Cooperman agrees, calling for an active Shuswap Watershed Council, as well as point source monitoring of suspected nutrient sources, specifically agricultural op-
erations along the Shuswap River. “When they first started SLIPP (Shuswap Lake Integrated Planning Process – the watershed council’s previous incarnation), that was the plan, to do point-source monitoring and, to my knowledge that hasn’t been done yet,” said Cooperman. “They’ve identified nutrient spikes in the river and in Mara Lake, but they can’t tell you where it comes from. The point-source monitoring will tell you the source of the nutrients.” Columbia Shuswap Regional District See Monitoring on page 3
Break-in adds insult to injury for victims of February mudslide By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
Donna Vaughan thought her life had hit bottom after her Mara home was destroyed in a mud slide. She was wrong. Six seconds. That’s about how long it took for Donna and husband Leo’s lives to change for the worse. On Feb. 16 of this year, the two were at home in their bedroom. Donna was in the bedroom and Leo the kitchen when their house spilt
down the centre after being struck by wave of mud that she says moved the home 30 feet. “The house split down the centre in a buckle, and he was on one side and I was on the other and we crawled out of that,” said Donna.”So when things keep happening, you’re like, ‘wow, what more could you throw at me?’” On the evening of TuesSee Exhausted on page 2
At wit’s end: Leo and Donna Vaughan stand in front of the remains of their Mara residence, which was destroyed in a mudslide. Last week, the couple learned they’d been victims of break-in on the property. Photo by Kelly M. Dick