Detailed Preamble including an example of firm commitments by the provincial Ministers of the Environment is towards the end so as not to deflect away from the seriousness/urgency of this email; you can click here to go there instantaneously. Clicking on the underlined words in all of our emails will always launch the relevant web pages for more info. Sorry for any typos/grammar. This is written informally and also see some relevance to recent massive public complaints re the JEWELS of DARTMOUTH!

 

Spanning almost the entire night again, I `perused/analyzed’ some of the lake data on the HRM’s website and I am literally SHOCKED with several of the TP (total phosphorus) values reported there for this year, 2010, and to some extent for year-2009, as well. They are abnormally high compared to data of even recent years as well as in comparison with data of the last 2 decades!

 

====== Our `modeled natural background values’, i.e., prior to any human disturbance in the entire watersheds (and calibrated with some paleolimnological and other biological models) have been in the range of 2-5-6 μg/l TP for clearwater lakes (TCU generally less than 20), with higher values for higher coloured lakes (TCU greater than 20). Even in the latter case of highly coloured lakes, if one uses the modelled Cha values and then applies the published regressions between TP and Cha, then the resulting TP values are also in the same range; this was not surprising at all as the local stalwart like one of our founding members in 1988, the now deceased Prof. Dr. GORDON OGDEN III Jr., of Dalhousie University also said the same thing in some of our 323 Television shows! ======

 

Important note:-- I am just wondering if there were typos in the HRM’s Excel spreadsheets. If there are no typos, not to worry!

 

And the Cha values (considered as a `surrogate’ for biological productivity, in general terminology) do not correspond at all as most of them are quite low, actually lower than the recent decadal values for several lakes that I perused on the HRM website.

 

I have not yet compared those with the data that I possess based on `paleoecological inferences’ from diverse sources since my primary focus these days is on our advanced Stage III and IV Protocols which have hardly been carried out by anyone in this neck of the woods as I stated to the Harbour East Community Council (HECC) at their monthly meeting in August, 2010. Don’t read their abridged minutes since the HRM’s clerical staff made massive errors on what I stated.

 

Probable reasons for the low Cha data:-- The time of sampling and the weather can play a significant part as I stated at the public meeting at the MicMac Boat Club last month held by Councillors McCluskey and Fisher. …………………….. In addition, every leading scientific handbook on lake sampling also caution on same (I don’t re‑invent any wheels)…………………………..

 

The other reason could be a `probable increase’ in the plants and weeds in the lakes which would compete with phytoplankton (Cha as the general indicator) for the nutrients, not just TP alone.

 

The huge anguish of September, 2010 by many long time residents at the Jewels of Dartmouth, BANOOK and MICMAC, showed there has been a remarkable increase in the nuisance weeds; I have received similar complaints from the general public dating back over the last 5 years and I believe I sent a `global email’ to most of the HRM councillors/staff which was Cc’d to several at the Province, as is my modus operandi always!

 

Relevant note:-- Re the aforesaid two lakes, the complaints are coincidental with the development at Dartmouth Crossing. I am aware about the fish pond Dartmouth Crossing allegedly has at an outlet or two and that fish were thriving there superbly.

 

But anyone who understands formal limnology will tell you that high nutrients do not necessarily impede fish population; if anything, they may increase significantly!

 

As almost everyone Cc’d/Bcc’d here knows, I hail from INDIA (immigrated here in 1966) and in India, the TP values are extremely high, many cases greater than a whopping one hundred (100) µg/l. But per published scientific reports, there is abundant fish and plant life in them and only in extreme cases of excessive hypolimnetic DO-depletion, that fish life was negatively impacted.

 

For another local example, at the lake that I have lived continuously since February 1972, MAYNARD LAKE in Dartmouth, HRM’s TP values were extremely high but Cha quite low.

 

I have NOT observed any significant changes at Maynard Lake!

 

NOTE:-- In addition, some benthic macroinvertebrate surveys we conducted during sporadic years at Maynard Lake showed NO SIGNIFICANT ISSUES either in `species richness’ or in `species diversity’; if there was, as Councillor Gloria McCluskey knows more than anyone else, I would have immediately made one or more detailed submissions to the HECC (hahaha)!

 

We have not yet conducted our chironomid mentum deformity studies at Maynard Lake since we are concentrating at lakes where there is massive new development, for example in the watersheds of Kearney and Papermill Lakes.

 

 

[Detailed Preamble: Cameron, this is written informally commencing at around 6:15 AM, and is Cc’d to those I feel relevant at HRM, Halifax Water, and at the NSE (Nova Scotia Environment Dept.). I also Cc the `environmental reps’ of all the 3 provincial political parties since it is their paid jobs to pay pragmatic attention to environmental concerns. I know for a fact that the NSE is doing absolutely nothing pragmatic, and I will no longer supply them our data or scientific synopses since I already did that on numerous occasions during the entire 1980’s and 90’s and they never got back to me, although there were firm commitments to the contrary. As one sad/sorry example, see the firm commitment by the Hon. ROBBIE HARRISON which was never kept to this day, alas (unless they pay the professional value for it and not just `symbolic honoraria’ the way HRM did on occasions)!

 

………………………… I don’t think you are aware of it Cameron though that the data archives your predecessor, Dr. Tony Blouin, got from me in 2005 or so under a conditional signed agreement (we had a subsidiary voice‑recorded agreement as well) only cover around 20% of the archives in my possession, btw, as I had informed Tony on numerous occasions when he was still with the HRM ……………………………………….].

 

[Top]

 

(Clicking on the underlined words will launch the relevant web pages)

 

Shalom Murti Mandaville Post-Grad Dip., Professional Lake Manage.

 

“Yes, We Can!”, a 4:30 minute music video on YouTube

 

Chair & Scientific Director

Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax- SWCSMH, a multi-discipline scientific/technical stakeholder group

 

…………… and Public Art in Halifax Regional Municipality, NS

 

310-4 Lakefront Road, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada  B2Y 3C4

Tel: 902-463-7777

 

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