LSRCA Board given review of 2006 accomplishments
by Michelle Minnoch

Undertaking various projects including the Assimilative Capacity Study (ACS), updated mapping, and more work completed on the Source Water Protection (SWP) program, the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) was quite busy in 2006.

"2006 was a challenging and successful year," said outgoing LSRCA Board of Directors Chair Roy Bridge.

Bridge said we are in a climate of change, and that change has altered business sin the watershed.

CAO Gayle Wood gave the Board a review of the Authority's 2006 Annual Report at Friday's Annual General Meeting.

Wood told the Board that Lake Simcoe produces $2 million annually with economic tourism, recreation and fishing. She said the LSRCA works tirelessly with their municipal partners, First Nations, the Provincial and Federal Governments, and their stakeholders.

"We can't do the job without the stakeholders," she said.

The Conservation Authority has been working with their municipal partners for the past 20 years, and in the past 16 years, over 800 projects have been completed in the watershed.

Wood said they have made significant strides, including the decrease of the phosphorus in the Lake, and there are signs of Lake Trout reproducing in the Lake, which Wood says has not been seen in about 20 to 25 years.

The ACS, a partnership with the Province of Ontario and Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA), helped the LSRCA evaluate how the watershed could accommodate new development without significant impacts to the watershed.

The LSRCA was the lead agency in the SWP program. The program gave the Authority the information needed to understand surface and ground water protection. Leading edge technology and science helped the LSRCA determine the data of groundwater and surface water, the risks to water quality, and develop a water budget to gauge the amount of water in the system. The project was a partnership with the NVCA, the Severn Sound Environmental Association, and the municipalities in the Black-Severn watershed.

Wood said the Lake Simcoe Environmental Management Strategy (LSEMS) was a significant study with the province and municipalities, specifically the County of Simcoe.

"It helped us determine the level of importance development has in the watershed."

The One Voice Action Plan (OVAP), in which the Authority is partnering with agencies, citizen groups, community groups, governments, scientists and practitioners, will help in determining the long term goal for the Lake in terms of the healthy of the watershed, planning and a new governance structure.

"The One Voice Action Plan is a plan which strives to work together with everyone," said Wood. "It will be a comprehensive watershed basin plan, doing work with our partners and then bringing it to the public."

Wood said it will be the most significant watershed project, as it will allow the Authority to know if the state of the watershed is improving or not.

Wood also spoke about the Flood Line/Natural Hazard Mapping which was undertaken in 2006. The mapping was approved last year by the Ministry of Natural Resources in which the Authority mapped hazards in the Lake Simcoe Watershed. The map, with approx. 3,950 km of stream channels, used the best in science. A flood model was also created, including variables of precipitation, saturation, groundwater, topography and drainage systems. Wood said it took them two years to identify natural features and functions in the watershed.

Wood said in 2007, the LSRCA will have to determine the future of LSEMS, the Oak Ridges Moraine conservation plans, regulation and planning in regards to SWP, negotiate with the City of Orillia to join the Authority, advocate the government for more funding, and will do a comprehensive basinwide watershed plan.