An invasive plant is spreading throughout the lakes of Greater Sudbury. It’s called the Eurasian watermilfoil. We spoke to a couple of members of the Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance about just how bad the problem has become. September 28, 2017
CBC Radio-Canada – article – click here:
Un texte de Benjamin Aubé, Radio-Canada, 25 September 2017
18 lakes affected in Greater Sudbury, including Ramsey and Nepahwin
Greater Sudbury city council is supporting a new pilot project that aims to control an invasive species that is spreading in lakes.
The Eurasian watermilfoil kills aquatic plants and is also an nuisance for swimmers, boaters and lakefront property owners.
City council is sending a letter to Ontario’s Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry Kathryn McGarry, and its representatives in Queen’s Park to support the Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance’s push to control the plant.
Nicole Wittke, a member of the alliance, made suggestions to city council on Tuesday evening on how to tackle the issue.
“I mean frankly, this is my personal opinion [but] I don’t think anybody should be allowed on Ramsey Lake unless they have their boat washed,” Wittke said.
“I think there should be a boat washing station set up at the launch and people should be charged.” Read full CBC article here.
Effective April 1, a new municipal by-law restricts the use of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus within Greater Sudbury. You may no longer apply general-use lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus. Check to make sure the middle number of the ingredient formula is “0”.
Phosphorus is still permitted in the following situations:
This by-law only relates to lawn fertilizers and does not affect other types of fertilizers, such as those used for flowers, vegetables, trees or shrubs. It does not restrict the sale of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus – only their use. When applying any fertilizer, residents are reminded to avoid fertilizing when the ground is frozen, when it is raining or forecast to rain within 48 hours, or within 15 meters of any body of water. If fertilizer spills onto an impervious surface such as a walkway, it must be swept onto the soil to ensure absorption.
If you’re concerned about the health of your lawn, check the pH of your soil to make sure it isn’t too acidic. You can purchase a simple soil test kit from local garden centres. If necessary, adding crushed limestone can decrease the acidity of the soil, which makes the nutrients more readily available to your grass.
This by-law is intended to help protect the health of Greater Sudbury’s lakes. In a community full of lakes, all chemicals, additives and products we use in and around our homes eventually reach the water. While phosphorus is a natural element needed for plant growth, too much phosphorus in a water body can be detrimental to the aquatic environment.
For more information, please visit
www.greatersudbury.ca or call 3-1-1.
By Bloomberg News, Sudbury Star wire service
The City of Greater Sudbury is the first community in Ontario to ban commercial fertilizers containing phosphorus.
Following a 90-minute discussion, council unanimously supported a bylaw brought to the city by the Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance.
When in effect in April 2012, the bylaw will ban outright the application of any fertilizer containing phosphorus, except for agricultural use, golf courses and newly laid grass seed or sod.
The bylaw will also restrict all commercial fertilizer use, whether they contain phosphorus or not. For example, applying fertilizers on frozen ground, during or just prior to rain or on driveways and pavement would be forbidden.
“These are common-sense restrictions,” Stephen Monet, the city’s director of environmental planning, said. “These fertilizers don’t need to be there and they are not to be used in this way.”
In introducing the bylaw, Monet made clear chemical lawn fertilizers are not the primary source of phosphorus loading in area lakes and the ban is but a small piece of a large and complex puzzle.
Indeed, in grudgingly recommending the bylaw, he predicted it would not help reduce phosphorus loading in area lakes. It would be virtually unenforcable, anyway. But it would signal the city’s intent to protect lake water quality and send a message that it’s a community- wide responsibility that doesn’t end with restricting fertilizer use.
Monet reiterated this is a grassroots issue, not a corporate or legal one. Fighting bluegreen algae and other threats to area lakes is the responsibility of citizens and homeowners and the decisions they make daily.
Monet pointed to a number of other pieces to the water-quality puzzle not addressed in the proposed bylaw:
Councillors agreed with the ideas and added their own.
Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann said the city should do everything possible to encourage residents to get their soil tested to see if fertilizers are even needed. It would cost about $35, plus the cost of shipping the sample to Guelph.
Possibilities include offering subsidies, running clinics and partnering with other groups, such as Laurentian University’s Living With Lakes Centre, to educate residents on the use of fertilizers.
Before approving a bylaw, councillors first voted to ensure it is widely publicized in Ontario and eliminated a provision for staff to retain outside legal counsel to investigate jurisdictional issues.
Effective or not, the bylaw signals a positive change in attitudes and behaviours in the community, Ward 2 Coun. Jacques Barbeau said.
“When people manicured their lawns right down to the lake, no one knew any better,” he said.
“But today, we do and this issue has brought all this information forward.”
mwhitehouse@thesudburystar.com
By Pastor Rob Weatherby, Sudbury Star
The politics of enacting a bylaw banning the use of phosphates in lawn fertilizer in Greater Sudbury is becoming confrontational. It’s important that all sides –municipal officials and lake stewardship organizations — work together to tackle what is becoming a serious threat to our lakes.
Sometimes, a bylaw’s message is not so much the threat of punishment, but a signal of how seriously the city approaches a problem. There isn’t a compelling reason why Greater Sudbury should not take this route.
Phosphates exist naturally in the environment, and indeed are required for plant growth. But runoff of lawn pesticides — which end up in rivers and lakes –creates an oversupply, which can result in plumes of blue-green algae in lakes.
These algae plumes –pond scum, to the casual observer –are ugly business. Once they form in a lake, it’s almost impossible to get rid of them. The Sudbury and District Health Unit issues a warning that is never rescinded.
You can’t drink or swim in the water near a blue-green algae plume. You can’t cook in water that contains blue-green algae. You can’t boil the water because that could make it more toxic. You shouldn’t eat fish that swim in it. You can’t treat the water with disinfectant because that may make it more toxic, as well.
The appearance of blue-green algae in a lake will change the lifestyle of people who live nearby, and of those who use it for recreation.
And that is what we do in the North, we live by, and play in, our lakes.
The Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance, noting that blue-green algae has appeared in 12 area lakes — including in Ramsey Lake, a source of drinking water –wants such a ban, which would be the first in Ontario.
But city staff prefer an education campaign and an initiative to work with retailers to stop selling products that contain phosphates. There isn’t much enthusiasm for compromise on either side.
A report by city staff says 95% of the volume of products sold as lawn fertilizer in Greater Sudbury no longer contain phosphates, so a ban is not needed. Retailers are open to the idea of getting rid of phosphate products, and public education campaigns have shown to be effective, the report says. A ban would increase the workload on an already taxed staff, and it would be almost impossible to enforce, the report says. As well, staff say it’s not clear that municipalities in Ontario even have the power to enact such a bylaw, given provincial and federal oversight.
Besides, the report says, municipalities that do have bylaws in place — mostly in the U.S. — enacted them in the early 2000s. Since then, the industry has had a “profound market shift” and is now working to reduce the use of phosphates. But Stephen Butcher, chair of the Long Lake Stewardship committee and co-chair of the Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance, says companies only cut phosphates because laws made them do so, and that municipalities have the right to ban phosphates.
City council is expected to consider a proposal for a bylaw today that would ban the use of fertilizers that contain phosphates, although another option presented by staff is to avoid the bylaw and press ahead with a public education campaign.
No one disputes the presence of excessive phosphates due to runoff is bad, so let’s get the politics out of the way. There’s nothing to say a public education campaign can’t work hand-in-hand with a bylaw.
Together, the message given by the municipality known as the City of Lakes would be unequivocal.
Twitter: MacLeodSudbury
