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Quill Lake expands
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Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Tisdale
by: Timothy W. Shire
images byL Ken Jones
Tisdale
by: Timothy W. Shire
images byL Ken Jones
.
Once upon a time and not that long ago, the Quill Lakes were two distinct entities, but in the spring of 2011 the run off saw the two lakes merge into one very large body of water. Since then, the lakes have not declined in size, but continue to grow, little by little with each year’s snow fall and each rain.
In 2011, the lake reached highway #6 just north of Dafoe, then promptly engulfed the roadway spilling into the country side to the west. The highway was not up to the challenge and during 2014, then again in the early summer of 2015, there was considerable construction on the highway, widening it and shoring up the east side, so it could handle the wave action from the lake. Now, highway #6 is a crossway, a thin line across the lake, that during the summer of 2015 has continued to stretch out west and north.
The hilly country that runs across this part of Saskatchewan, from Greenwater to Duck Mountain provincial Park are a sort of dividing line between higher ground and the area that stretches out along the north side of highway #16. From Good Spirit to the west side, of the now expanded Quill Lake, is an area with poor to no drainage. One of the creeks that feeds into the Quill has been considered by the water authority to be diverted, to move that incoming water into Last Mountain Lake, but such action would not be popular with those people who depend upon the Qu’Appelle chain of lakes as their recreation area and place of residence.
The Quill Lake is decidedly saline, just as the water trapped in the small lakes north of Humboldt and moving this water south, would take the salt with it and decrease the life in the whole series of fresh water lakes that so much of Saskatchewan depends upon.
Though it seems obvious, that the abundant use of fertilisers contributes to the run off from farm land the salinity in the soil of this part of Saskatchewan. North of highway #16, the salt in the water has traditionally been higher, simply because of the lack of streams to flush the salt away and so it accumulates in the ponds and small lakes. The wind and summer after summer, concentrate the salt so that Manitou Lake is not the only salt water body of water in Central Saskatchewan. It would appear that climate change is also playing a part in all of this, bringing Saskatchewan heavy snowfall some years and despite the summer droughts, severe storms bring large amounts of precipitation to the area building up the ground water.
Though this may all seem like a political situation, it really is a geological and climate issue that needs to be sorted out by the scientific community so that both the water agency and the various local and provincial governments can make appropriate and strategic decisions about this growing problem, that is certainly far from going away on its own. Not only has the Quill Lake gobbled up valuable and productive farm land, it continues to do so with each and every rainfall. There is no place for the water to go and evaporation just concentrates the level of salinity in the water.
Though very costly, desalinisation is a plausible treatment, but handling the vast amounts of water involved would require considerable commitment of resources and might only meet the actual inflow of water through the season and not be able to attack the water mass already in place. No matter what is done, the costs are going to be staggering.
The loss of farmland must be weighed against the damage to Last Mountain Lake and the Qu’Appelle chain of lakes. Tragically it is not an either or situation in that ultimately, the costs will simple grow exponentially as the volume of water increases which it is doing steadily since 2011. A sensible expensive solution now might cost a fraction of what the ultimate costs might be in as little as ten years from now.
In 2011, the lake reached highway #6 just north of Dafoe, then promptly engulfed the roadway spilling into the country side to the west. The highway was not up to the challenge and during 2014, then again in the early summer of 2015, there was considerable construction on the highway, widening it and shoring up the east side, so it could handle the wave action from the lake. Now, highway #6 is a crossway, a thin line across the lake, that during the summer of 2015 has continued to stretch out west and north.
The hilly country that runs across this part of Saskatchewan, from Greenwater to Duck Mountain provincial Park are a sort of dividing line between higher ground and the area that stretches out along the north side of highway #16. From Good Spirit to the west side, of the now expanded Quill Lake, is an area with poor to no drainage. One of the creeks that feeds into the Quill has been considered by the water authority to be diverted, to move that incoming water into Last Mountain Lake, but such action would not be popular with those people who depend upon the Qu’Appelle chain of lakes as their recreation area and place of residence.
The Quill Lake is decidedly saline, just as the water trapped in the small lakes north of Humboldt and moving this water south, would take the salt with it and decrease the life in the whole series of fresh water lakes that so much of Saskatchewan depends upon.
Though it seems obvious, that the abundant use of fertilisers contributes to the run off from farm land the salinity in the soil of this part of Saskatchewan. North of highway #16, the salt in the water has traditionally been higher, simply because of the lack of streams to flush the salt away and so it accumulates in the ponds and small lakes. The wind and summer after summer, concentrate the salt so that Manitou Lake is not the only salt water body of water in Central Saskatchewan. It would appear that climate change is also playing a part in all of this, bringing Saskatchewan heavy snowfall some years and despite the summer droughts, severe storms bring large amounts of precipitation to the area building up the ground water.
Though this may all seem like a political situation, it really is a geological and climate issue that needs to be sorted out by the scientific community so that both the water agency and the various local and provincial governments can make appropriate and strategic decisions about this growing problem, that is certainly far from going away on its own. Not only has the Quill Lake gobbled up valuable and productive farm land, it continues to do so with each and every rainfall. There is no place for the water to go and evaporation just concentrates the level of salinity in the water.
Though very costly, desalinisation is a plausible treatment, but handling the vast amounts of water involved would require considerable commitment of resources and might only meet the actual inflow of water through the season and not be able to attack the water mass already in place. No matter what is done, the costs are going to be staggering.
The loss of farmland must be weighed against the damage to Last Mountain Lake and the Qu’Appelle chain of lakes. Tragically it is not an either or situation in that ultimately, the costs will simple grow exponentially as the volume of water increases which it is doing steadily since 2011. A sensible expensive solution now might cost a fraction of what the ultimate costs might be in as little as ten years from now.
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