Efforts to improve the water quality of Lake Simcoe — a playground for swimmers, boaters, and tourists — have stalled as the lake faces “significant ecological stress,” a report says.
“While localized improvements have occurred, many key indicators are static or worsening,” says the report from the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition.
Jonathan Scott, executive director of the coalition, said the health of the lake is getting worse.
“To care about this lake and this region of the province is to care about the people who live here. The lake is the economic driver for tourism, for agriculture, and so many other factors,” said Scott.
In the face of pollutants, invasive species, climate change, urbanization and farming the report found a “mixed picture” for Lake Simcoe. Phosphorus concentrations have slightly declined — meaning less risks of algal blooms, low oxygen levels, and degraded water quality — and deep-water oxygen levels have improved.
However, chloride levels from road salt runoff — which can hurt aquatic life — continue to rise, the report said. Climate change pressures are also having an impact causing, among other things, higher municipal expenses for stormwater systems and significant deferred maintenance for stormwater ponds and drainage, causing more contaminated water to enter the lake’s watershed.
The report also highlighted the increase in public-health advisories and beach closures around the lake.
The report acts as a progress report for the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan (LSPP) which was launched in 2008 by the provincial government to monitor water quality, rising phosphorus pollution, and loss of lake trout and whitefish.
Just over an hour drive from Toronto, the Lake Simcoe watershed spans more than 3,400 square kilometres. The lake supports more than half a million residents in Barrie, Innisfil, and Orillia. It also supports a variety of ecosystems from cold water fish habitats to wetlands and woodlands.
The report includes 13 recommendations to improve the lake, such as modernizing and enforcing the provincial phosphorus-reduction strategy, cutting property taxes to clean the lake, and investing in stormwater management and asset maintenance.
It also notes that the LSPP remains as “Ontario’s strongest watershed-based environmental strategy.”
“It is not broken, but it is under pressure,” the report says. “Its success depends not only on clear goals but on full commitment from governments, municipalities, conservation authorities and the public.”
Recently, Ontario announced it will centralize control of conservation authorities under a new provincial agency and will streamline development approvals.
“We want the provincial, federal, and other levels of government to come together and say we care about this lake and we want to protect the plan,” said Scott.
“That protects the lake and that’s how we rescue Lake Simcoe.”
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