Hey guys,
I wonder if anyone has heard about this yet. The French River is just south of Sudbury for those who don't know. My cottage is found within the warning zone in Eighteen Mile Bay, they are saying not to do ANYTHING with the water, including filtering or boiling. Very scary. I hate being so far away and unable to get the complete details.
Does anyone know why this would occur????


French River water alert issued
Blue-green algae found
Posted By By Star Staff
Posted 6 days ago

Ministry of the Environment tests have confirmed the presence of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) in French River, from Wolseley Bay to Dry Pine Bay.

Samples taken by the ministry from 18 Mile Bay contained anabaena, a species of blue-green algae capable of producing toxins.

Testing hasn’t confirmed the presence of toxins, but there is a risk the algae could produce toxins that could remain in the water for three weeks after a bloom event, says Richard Auld, an environmental support officer with the Sudbury and District Health Unit.

The toxins can irritate the skin and cause diarrhea and vomiting if ingested. At high enough levels, toxins can cause liver and nervous system damage.

The Sudbury and District Health Unit recommends that residents on the French River:

Not use water from the French River to drink, bathe or shower. Do not allow children, pets and livestock to drink or swim in the water;

Not use herbicides, copper sulphate or other algaecides that may break open the algae cells and release toxins into the water;

Not boil the water because it may release more toxins.

Not cook with the water. Your food may absorb toxins from the water;

Not eat the liver, kidneys and other organs of fish caught in the water. Be cautious eating fish caught in water where blue-green algae blooms occur;

Not treat the water with a disinfectant such as bleach because it may break open algae cells and release toxins into the water;

Not rely on water jug filtration systems because they don’t fully protect against toxin poisoning.

For more information, phone the health unit at 522-9200, ext. 398

Over exposure to phosphates is usually the main cause of this. The river system is being overpopulated by careless people.

Or TVBrian left a sock behind, look what happened to Scugog's carp population last year, after his episode with Stevie Wonder

That has been on the news a couple of weeks ago

Ahem, we all know who was responsible for Scugog....

My parents just heard about it tonight...
do you know if anything has changed in the situation?

Ask Muskoka Minute about blue green algae.

He's got a ton of first hand knowledge I'm sure.

Yes, contact Muskoka Minute. He'll know.
He may also tell you that as the water chills the algea will die. Hopefully the local residents, farmers and cottages will get a wake-up call and clean up their act before next spring and the Min. of Environment condems their properties until updated. Farm runoff, non-functional septic systems, high phosphate cleaning products all contribute.

I figured it would have occured because of high amounts of phosphates...Its disgusting how little some people care. My neighbour for one, takes shampoo out onto their floating raft and washes her hair. Thats a good way to inject phosphates straight into the environment. You bet I'll be taking my tin-tub over this summer and telling her thats what caused the last algal bloom... Also, I know there are many illegal septic systems around... I guess thats what happens when people are ignorant and careless. I sure hope this gets resolved, and that the algae will die with the colder water as you said.
Let it snow! 5 cm in Thunder bay and still snowing!
Take 'er easy guys

I'm telling ya I was framed, I left the bush that day with both shoe's "right and left" not like the the two left booted Tranny Pimp and his single socked Hoe

there are phosphate free and biodegradable shampoos out there.. dont clean as well, but are fine for the water.

its mainly farm runoff that causes it.. 3 mile lake near utterson had some issues with the green-blue algae and is okay to use now.. but not a "clean" lake by any stretch

I don't know if farms are really to blame in that area though... there really isn't an agricultural industry at all. I think its excessive phosphates and septic systems possibly. The french is a huge river to be contaminated...

not many farms in that area

Wolseley Bay........... I've been there! Nice spot but the pub at the end of the lake was closed. My buds had a great time there a few years back. I can't remember the name of the pub, but I recall orange and brown paint for some reason??? It was a very scenic area , especially crossing the French River. We had lunch in the Dokis............yeah baby..........no tax!!! lol

dawg

We have had the same problem in the West Arm with that lime green water. Have seen it for the last 3 years that I've been here. It seems to happen at different times every year for some reason. One year it was mid August, this year it was late September or early October. If I remember right, it only lasted around a week.

We have many farms near waterways that drain into the lake here, that is one explanation I have heard. You guys on the French are probably just getting our scummy water problems as you are downstream from us. Just takes a little bit longer to get to you.

BTW the ground is white here, about an inch down and coming down fluffy and thick YEEhaw.

Whatch wot you say biatch, I'll shove both my left foots up yo ass

Yo Yo Yo G-Money Love I had no idea you wore those glass's when not riding

Polaris98 I was just thinking, are your parents informed about the composting/dump facility about to be built north of Noelville? They will be trucking up 13 loads a day of Halton waste to a site that is beside Pine River which flows directly into Nippising and from there into the French River. This may be onlly be the beginning of your water problems.

No, we are definitely not aware of a dump facility being built north of Noelville! Do you have any information concerning this?

Well there is obviously huge local opposition to this happening. It is being put forth as a composting facility mostly, but there will also be unrecyclable garbage mixed in. It is a 200 or 300 acre site as I remember but they require around 80 acres to operate. . The bylaw was put through to allow this to happen before the public caught on, the company has spent big bucks on property and site studies or whatever, and to rescind the bylaw now may cost the municipality large $. That is about all I know about it.There is a website for the organized opposition at www.savethefrench.ca.

I'm not an engineer or scientist but my gut tells me it can't be good having this operation only 5km away from Nippising and beside a direct feeder creek. Wait till the onsite workers start having daily bear confrontations.

Thanks very much for the info...we will all be writing letters opposing this issue very soon.

Its all about tax $$$$$ for the muncipality and jobs to be created

They do not give a peep about the environment

Have you ever driven down a hwy and spotted the signs for the local dump? And then not 20 feet past the entrance is a creek or river or lake? I've seen it many times and question how can having a dump that close to a waterway be good? Seems like it may be starting to catch up to us.

Sorry to hear about the algae, and hope you can put a stop to that "composting" site...but it's an uphill battle!

Hi Polaris98

Sorry to here about the Blue-Green.

The good news is that it can't live through winter. (Actually it is the lack of day light that they can't live without.)

So it should be gone come spring.

Did you know that the Blue-Green is in all bodies of water!!!

Here is what I know:

1) You are correct in saying that the Blue-Green does need elevated levels of Nitrate and Phosphate which can come from human and animal waste, fertilizer, almost anything that is de-composing etc. The Nitrate and Phosphates are its food.

2) Ever body of water has Blue-Green living in it. In larger bodies of water (like Lake Muskoka) it is living below the the surface.(Out of site out of mind)
This is because it uses photosyntasis to control its positon.

3) The Blue-Green needs two things to live. Food-Nitrate/Phosphates and SunLight.

When we had our outbreak there were a few extream factures involved:

A) Our lake is a slow moving shallow.
B) We had almost Zero rain that summer.
C) The lake hit 21 degree by the 1st of June and stayed there untill mid Sept.
D) The MNR normally drains a swamp every year that drains into the lake. Normally the lake can take this high concentrate of Nitrate/Phosphates. But Some ASS HOLE Deceided to drained (pulled/cut the put logs on) the swamp for a second time.
E) We had a lake that looked like PEA Soup. Not Good.

A good thing did come from this. While we were having the Bloom it was actully cleaning the lake. ie; It was eating all of it's food supply. So when the ice and snow came it killed off the Blue-Green. Which left us with a revived lake. It is nice and clear and I beleive that the fishing is better than before.

Attached is a link that my be of help.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/water-eau/...acteries_e.html

Just to let everyone know it is not the farmers, its not the landscaper its all of us that are contributing to all the Blue-Green Algae Blooms that are occuring in Ontario, Quebec and around the world.

I also have to contribute Global Warming for part of the problem. Its keeping our overall water temps higher, which is what it likes.

We are all becoming educated in problem which can only be a positive for our enviroment.

No I'm not a tree hugger!! But I do like clean water.

I do have other info if anyone is interested.

Good Luck Polaris98











You need a couple of things to all happen all at once for the Blue-Green to have a massive bloom.

Thanks very much for your reply Muskoka Minute. Hearing this makes me feel a lot better, and optimistic that maybe it scared residents enough to clean up their act. Thanks again for your expertise!!
Glad to hear the overall health of your lake is back to normal and the fishing is better than ever, ours could surely use an improvement!

P.S anyone in the Sudbury area heard any more news about the situation?

I've got a better one....

Guelph built it's composting facility on top of an identified rare triple tiered aquifer that's labelled as a future drinking water supply and they bypassed the Environmental Assessment on the site.

Numerous studies told them to put it someplace else, but they got the land for free so they went ahead anyway. Now, just over 10 years later, the entire composter is corroded and had to be torn down due to the extremely corrosive atmosphere created during the composting process. The building rotted from the inside out.

In the last municipal election, a bunch of greeny do-gooders got in and want to rebuild the facility. We're doing everything we can to stop it.

Perhaps our website will help you in your fight. There's a ton of good information there.

http://www.gwmc.ca/