2009 was an interesting year for your water testing crew. We
welcomed two new trainees, Harvey Dorrell and Wolfgang
Dumke, Six times during the spring and summer the 3 of us
headed out early Sunday (or Monday if a long weekend) to
take water samples and conduct Secchi Disk readings at 7
locations throughout Crane Lake. Our protocol was modified
this year in two respects. First we learned at a seminar in the
spring that we should be taking our samples in very shallow
water which is why you may have seen us much closer to
shore than in previous years. Secondly we added a test site,
specifically what I call “Muskoka Bay” which is the bay on
the right hand side when entering the Narrows from the south
end. I was concerned that the build up of large cottages in this
bay combined with the low water table might affect water
quality – the good news is that Muskoka Bay showed no
unusually high results compared to the rest of the test sites.
Unfortunately we can’t say the same for one spot in Bathtub
Bay where we had a series of higher than desired results in the
middle of the summer. The challenge of doing this type of
testing is that we, as volunteers, are only qualified to report the
results, not to interpret them, so when concerned neighbours
contacted us we directed them to the Township offices for
follow up. It should also be mentioned that the Archipelago
target values for safe recreational water are 10 times lower
than the Ministry of Health - I don’t believe a public beach
would be closed until the Ecoli readings were consistently
over 100 which is something we have never experienced in the
5 + years I have been doing this. That being said testing our
water to tighter targets gives us a heads up while there is still
time to take remedial action which these cottagers did.
Please remember to check our website throughout the summer
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