I attend the Association meeting on July 7th

I attended my third association meeting last Saturday. Although if I understood correctly, this was the 95th meeting of the Association since its founding. Which is pretty amazing I think.

As always there was a pretty good turn out, I would say at least 75 people or so. Quite a number of items were discussed, though of course the hot topic was water quality, and in particular the blue algae situation.

I am not as well educated as I should be in this area, but a couple of things became evident as I listened to others speak:

- Blue algae is a natural outgrowth of lakes getting old. All lakes get old and so all lakes will eventually be affected. All we can do, is to try and slow down the process. A very interesting brochure was given out, from Fisheries Canada, that showed a number of things that can be done to slow down (or speed up) the process.

- Each of us can do something to help. In particular, make sure your septic system is not only pumped at regular intervals, but that it is not leaking. All septic tanks have a finite life expectancy. If yours is fifteen or more years old it should be checked. Another thing we can do is not to plant grass, and in particular not to plant it down to the water's edge. At Lac Lantier they have created a ten meter buffer zone from the waterfront of all properties where people are not allowed to cut their grass.

- Another thing we can do is avoid using fertilizers on our lawn, since they contain chemicals which will run into the water speeding up the blooming process. All fertilizers, including compost, are bad, Also try to avoid using dishwashing soap that contains phosphates. All other household soaps are regulated and phosphate free, but dishwashing soap is not. If anyone has some suggestions please share them. (Thanks to Jenny Patton for that info).

From the amount of discussion and questions that were asked, this was obviously something that is upper most in many people's mind. We must all work together on this issue. If we do not, the water in our beloved lake will turn to poison, and we will not be able to swim in it, wash in it, or anything else.

Let us all be committed to preserving the natural beauty of our lake.