Hello Mr. Ken Ashley! Thanks for your email and it has been a long time
since we corresponded on another matter back during the early 1990s. I am
also copying this to select Directors of the WRWEO (Woodens River
Watershed Environmental Organization) you are consulting for on a
fee-basis and to others since I am also including here some concerns of
mine about `severe misunderstandings' which appear to have taken
significant proportions based on certain `minutes' of WRWEO I rec'd over
time as well as indirect info I rec'd from NSDoE.

Firstly, I cannot fully fathom what you are asking me below in your copied
email. I already gave not one, but two sets of the entire report I did as
a total volunteer in 1993 (revised in 1994) to Capt. Frank Hope as well as
to Mr. Tim McGee of the Woodens River group over the last approx. three
(3) years.

But if you are asking for the field data from 1991-92 as well as other
archives, you can download directly the following MS Excel 5.0 file,
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Science/SWCS/DATA/data-s.xls

The best way to download is by the MS Internet Explorer or a suitable FTP
program (and not the Netscape). That Excel book has the actual DO/Temp
readings as well as the graphs (it will be in the leaf following the
chemistry info)!

IMP NOTE: My (and Walter Pilon's) work at Sheldrake Lake were as a total
100% volunteer and I did the report on the express request of an
ex-Minister of our Provincial Dept. of Environment (NSDoE&L), the Hon.
Robbie Harrison, who had not followed upon it and who DID NOT REIMBURSE US
FOR A SINGLE PENNY even for out-of-pocket costs although he was the one
who asked me personally at a meeting in his office in 1994 to `prepare and
donate' him reports!

============ That is `typical politicians' for you!! My lawyer at the
large firm of Stewart, McKelvie.. advised me early this year to always get
signed legal agreements before we, i.e., my scientific group (SWCSMH- Soil
& Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax), ever does anything in
future for highly paid politicians and/or senior bureaucrats! We should
have learnt this lesson by now, but I personally have not obviously!!

Extremely Important: I perused my report again this morning at 7 AM, and
nowhere did I state that Sheldrake Lake will be `restored' to its
`pre-development state' by hypolimnetic aeration alone.  Indeed I had
recommended such aeration only to provide a `refuge' for salmonids,
herbivores and other food-web organisms because of the `alleged decline'
in salmonids of the said lake (as stated to me by atleast 3 or so anglers)
although direct acid deposition over Nova Scotia had allegedly decreased
by around 50% (per reports from Environment Canada as well as a weekly Tv
show I did with Dr. John Underwood, formerly the lone limnologist at the
NSDoE).

Further IMP: I also recommended the implementation of `lake-shore
interceptors' and/or density controls and/or outright purchase of lands
within 300m of the upstream watercourses if it can be proven that the
onsite septic systems are indeed contributing phosphorus to the lake via
so-called groundwater plumes.

Further, I clearly recommended that the NSDoE should conduct further
studies to clearly explain `certain anomalies' in the data. But NSDoE, not
having a genuine Applied Limnologist on its staff, or for whatever other
reassons, did NOT (r) did NOT follow up on them. I mentioned the problems
numerous times to several senior bureaucrats over the years inclusive of
Mr. Andy Cameron, Ms. Dianne Coish, Ms. Catriona Moir (and Darrell
Taylor), but nothing transpired.

===== Hence I washed my hands of it totally and only got `partially
interested' when another group, i.e., WRWEO (Capt. Frank Hope and Mr. Tim
McGee) got interested/excited in/with it 2-3 years ago. But I did indeed
caution them of several problems but neither showed inclination to get
into the scientific aspects since by their own admission, they had no
scientific background. Most dealings of mine over last 2-3 years in the
case of Sheldrake Lake have been with Capt.  Frank Hope though!

======= BUT I STATE EMPHATICALLY THAT NEITHER MY PREDICTIVE TP-MODELLING
(based on the work of the geniuses, Prof. Dr. Peter Dillon of Ontario and
the multi-nation 15-yr research of the OECD headed by Dr. Richard
Vollenweider of Ontario) as well as our field work inclusive of our basic
`Phycology' (i.e., phytoplankton scans) of Sheldrake Lake PROVED THAT THE
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR OF TP WERE THE ONSITE SEPTIC SYSTEMS in the Sheldrake
Lake subdivision. Perhaps, the DO depletion during the summers of 1991/92
was totally natural with lakes with small hyplolimniums like Sheldrake
Lake. Also please remember, Sheldrake is a dystrophic lake, hence the
usual trophic criteria MAY NOT apply to the situation there (or to most
other lakes in the Woodens River watershed many of which are highly
dystrophic unless the photo-oxidising effects of increased UVB penetration
diminishes the DOC in the coming decades.... see published reports by
Schindler et al as well as by Dillon & Molot).

IMP: As an accredited professional applied limnologist, notwithstanding
being a volunteer, I only recommended hypolimnetic aeration as an
experiment and NOT (r) NOT as a panacea.

Extremely important: Mr. Ashley, I am very cautious here since the Nova
Scotia Dept.  of the Environment has already SQUANDERED hundreds of
thousands of dollars under the Federal-Provincial agreement of a few years
back (the SEDA agreement) and did NOT accrue any tangible benefits to lake
stakeholders to date.

========== The total failure of the $110,000+ project headed by John
Sheppard PEng of HRM has yielded absolutely no tangible results as far as
nutrient reductions are concerned in First Lake, Sackville (this lake has
been the no.1 concern in Sackville going even back to the 1980s).
Results/data of First Lake show no reductions in First Lake TP at all.
There were grossly over-exaggerated claims made by a local landscape firm
in the media, and hence I do not want the same `unsubstantiated
statements' made for Sheldrake Lake for obvious reasons!

This is the prime reason I am doubly cautious.

---plus--- hypolimnetic aeration is NOT sustainable and probably has to be
used every summer (is that not your experience Mr. Ashley in British
Columbia as well?). Also in Wisconsin, USA where there are numerous lakes
which are/were aerated during summers/winters, I understand once they stop
aerating, the lakes more or less revert back to their pre-aerated states.
You probably know about this aspect!

IMP: I have absolutely no proof of whether the DO depletions during the
summers of 1991 and 1992 at Sheldrake Lake were caused by anthropogenic
pollutants or indeed it is the natural state of Sheldrake. I mentioned
these and other aspects to Captain Frank Hope, but he does not seem to
udnerstand and has NOT returned my phone calls over the last six (6)
months. He visited me several times before, but he gets very restless and
does not go into details as he has always been in a hurry. Hence, I DO NOT
WANT TO BE MIS-QUOTED IN THE LEAST!!

I did not do the work for the Woodens River Group (WRWEO), I did it as a
total volunteer for my scientific limnology group (SWCSMH). I just shared
our info with the Woodens River group.

Also there is a Dalhousie Biology Prof within the WRWEO group's registered
Directors who expressed quite severe reservations and he was Prof. Dr.
Scheibling. We had an intense non-stop 3-hour (or so) session I recall
over a year ago. Perhaps, just perhaps, Prof. Scheibling is correct.

VVVIMP: FURTHER, I had advised Prof. Dr. Sheibling (and another lady
professor who was with him last year) that they should repeat what we did
in 1991-92 (perhaps even at a higher sampling frequency than what my group
did since they have all sorts of direct/indirect taxpayer-funded equipment
at Dalhousie University); also to conduct almost daily Temp-DO profiles
since our DO-Temp profiles during 1991-92 were NEVER NEVER INTENDED as a
`firm basis' for hypolimnetic aeration. It was only subsequent to the data
collection as well as when I saw the significant TP values in the bottom
waters (1-2 metres at bottom if I recall properly) that the idea for
hypolimnetic aeration dawned on me.

Our chemical data were analysed by the leading SCC (Standards Council of
Canada) accredited Environment Canada Lab in New Brunswick and hence it
was several months before I received the paper data reports.

PS: I thought once and for all there should be this clarification made and
I have also blind copied this to many others in the regulatory domain as
well as in my scientific limnology group!

Best wishes to everybody on a hopefully successful project!


======================================================================

Shalom M. Mandaville (Professional Lake Manage.)

Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax (SWCSMH)

Tel: (902) 463-7777;  E-mail: limnos@chebucto.ns.ca

(i) Master Homepage: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Science/SWCS/SWCS.html

(ii) Direct link to our Halifax/Halifax County Watershed Advisory Board
(WAB) Index File: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Science/SWCS/WAB/hhcwab.html

(iii) Direct link to the NS Lake Data archives:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Science/SWCS/DATA/dataindx.html

(iv) Direct link to the Freshwater Benthic Ecology Homepage:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Science/SWCS/ZOOBENTH/BENTHOS/benthos.html

(v) Direct link to the Predictive P-Modelling File:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Science/SWCS/TPMODELS/tpmodels.html

(vi) Direct link to the Paleolimnology Homepage:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Science/SWCS/PALEO/paleo.html

===========================================================================




On Sun, 24 Jun 2001, Ashley, Ken FISH:EX wrote:

> Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 20:16:56 -0700

> From: "Ashley, Ken FISH:EX" <Ken.Ashley@gems5.gov.bc.ca>

> To: "'limnos@chebucto.ns.ca'" <limnos@chebucto.ns.ca>

> Subject: Sheldrake lake oxygen and temperature data
>

> Hello, I would like to get access to vertical oxygen and temperature
profile data for Sheldrake Lake so I can provide Tim McGee and Frank Hope
with advice in designing a hypolimnnetic aeration system for Sheldrake
Lake.

 
> Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ken Ashley
>