BONNYVILLE – The Lakeland Industry and Community Association (LICA) is getting to the bottom of the smell from Jessie Lake, and taking steps to address it.
Representatives from the local organization presented their air monitoring results to Town of Bonnyville council during their regular meeting on Feb. 25, and outlined their plan of action to improve air quality.
Michael Bisaga, environmental monitoring programs manager for LICA, explained they had a Portable Air Monitoring System (PAMS) set up at the old Alberta Energy Resources (AER) offices in Bonnyville at 4903 51A St. from 2016 to 2017 and they moved it just east of town by the sewage lagoons from 2018 to 2020 to measure the air quality and gather more information on the unpleasant smell.
“We didn’t need a monitoring station in Bonnyville to tell us there’s an odour, your nose tells you that, and we knew the likely source was Jessie Lake,” detailed Bisaga. “Residents know that at certain points of the year, Jessie Lake has a noticeable odour, but we didn’t know what the concentrations were, and the only way to understand air quality issues is to do some monitoring.”
The monitoring focused on hydrogen sulphide, which is likely the cause of the smell. Both locations recorded 200 exceedances of the Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objective, an unusually high number.
“We found the highest concentration occurs during the warmer months when the lake is ice-free and it's released from the lagoons and lake,” Bisaga noted.
He continued, “All the pollutants are comparable to those observed in Cold Lake, which has a permanent air monitoring station, in all areas but one, and that’s hydrogen sulphide. The air monitoring shows that there’s seasonal patterns in hydrogen sulphide patterns, the monitoring data tells us there are two separate but similar issues related to hydrogen sulphide, there’s one by Jessie Lake and another one related to the lagoons, depending on where you are.”
One of the ways LICA is addressing the odour that comes from Jessie Lake is through their restoration program, which has been ongoing for the past three years.
After exploring various ways they could try to eliminate the smell, LICA decided to go a different route.
“A lot of the methods were very expensive and quite grand, and probably would have made a bigger smell out of the issue and not had the same effect,” detailed Erin Ritchie, manager of environmental programs for LICA. “So we went back to the old fashioned and classic: nature.”
Funds from the Alberta Environment and Parks’ Watershed Resiliency and Restoration Program (WRRP) grant, which aims to increase the natural ability of watersheds to mitigate the impact of flooding and drought through conservation, education, and stewardship, were put toward planting 5,200 red osier dogwood, Saskatoon cherry, and chokecherry seedlings along the riparian area on the north side of Jessie Lake between the memorial and the splash park in 2018.
“The point is, over time, they will establish themselves and create a new stable and healthy shoreline,” stated Ritchie.
Along with replacing the trail signs, LICA also hosted shoreline clean ups and weed pulls in 2018 and 2019 with the help of the town.
CAO Mark Power believes the work the organization has been doing has had a significant impact on the odour that comes from Jessie Lake.
“I can tell you there’s been less smell than there was three years ago, and I think the people that live close to the lake do notice a difference.”
Coun. Elisa Brosseau agreed, “I really found that the odour has dissipated over the last couple of years, so I hope that we continue to help your projects go on.”
LICA’s plans for 2020 include hosting a third shoreline clean up and adding two more riparian restoration sites. After successfully securing the WRRP grant again, their goal is to plant 12,500 seedlings between the two locations. The first will pick up where they left off in 2018, going along the lake between 42 St. and 55 St.
“The second location is the area around the rodeo grounds of Jessie Lake. In that area, we’re planning to put willow seedlings. We decided willow in this area and dogwood in the other one because willow can grow a little bit taller and block the view, so we didn’t want to block the view of Jessie Lake along the pathway. We decided to put willow, and it’s very effective riparian plan for helping filter the water, and also stabilize the shoreline,” Ritchie explained.
The goal is to have the planting happen in June, which will give the plants enough time to establish over the summer months.
LICA plans to conclude the air monitoring in the spring and will be moving their PAMS to the Lac La Biche area.
