Hidden Lake has been drained during eight of the ten past winters because the flow of Porter Creek into Hidden Lake has been diverted into overflow that fills the depression caused by the soil stripping on Versluice meadows. Overflow is created when insulating layers of snow on Porter Creek is disturbed. Porter Creek is now perched above the basin of mined area of Versluice meadows.
Increased solids are introduced into Hidden Lake in the spring due to the melt of ice and the transport of soils from Versluice meadows. This, in turn, has reduced the exfiltration rate of Hidden Lake causing the lake level to raise during spring runoff periods.
The algae bloom on the lake and in the creek is a direct result on the introduction of nutrients (principally nitrates and phosphates) from Ice Waters Ltd. (IWL) arctic char farm. These nutrients have resulted in blooms of algae that have covered more that 70% of the lake during the summer and in the ponds found along the course of Porter Creek.
IWL provides inadequate treatment of their effluent. Observations of solid wastes being flushed from their system and the indirect evidence from algae blooms throughout the system indicate that the levels of nutrients and wastes released are more that the system can tolerate. The algae that has died in the lake contributes to a noxious bethoic environment and also contributes to the decrease rate of exfiltration. Both contribute to the development of a eutrophic environment.
Increased solids are introduced into Hidden Lake in the spring due to the melt of ice and the transport of soils from Versluice meadows. This, in turn, has reduced the exfiltration rate of Hidden Lake causing the lake level to raise during spring runoff periods.
The algae bloom on the lake and in the creek is a direct result on the introduction of nutrients (principally nitrates and phosphates) from Ice Waters Ltd. (IWL) arctic char farm. These nutrients have resulted in blooms of algae that have covered more that 70% of the lake during the summer and in the ponds found along the course of Porter Creek.
IWL provides inadequate treatment of their effluent. Observations of solid wastes being flushed from their system and the indirect evidence from algae blooms throughout the system indicate that the levels of nutrients and wastes released are more that the system can tolerate. The algae that has died in the lake contributes to a noxious bethoic environment and also contributes to the decrease rate of exfiltration. Both contribute to the development of a eutrophic environment.
The lake level increase has killed all the trees adjacent to lake below water level. ES classes also conducted dendrochronology studies on six of these trees. They were an average of 130 to 140 years old. This indicates that the lake has not risen to this level for the past 130 – 140 years. Hidden lake exfiltrates and the rise in the lake is due to the substrate of the lake coated with layers of algae resulting from the periodic blooms. The rise in the lake coincides with the beginning of IWL release of effluent. The age of the trees shows that this lake level event has not happened over the past 130 to 140 years. If the concentrations of phosphates in Porter Creek were dependent of background level, and had not been impacted by IWL, we could have expected lake levels to have raised in the past. The tree ages show this is an unlikely event. This indicates two things; that the background nutrient levels had not resulted in raised lake levels, but, the nitrates and phosphates added to the system by IWL to the system have resulted in the lake flooding.
|
The following four diagrams were included with the 2003 intervention showing the growth of algae on Hidden Lake. The fifth diagram, an aerial image shows the extent of the bloom in 2006 and the sixth photo shows the extent of the flooding and dead trees adjacent of homes. These images demonstrates the persistence of water quality issues in Porter Creek and Hidden Lake.