Oak Lake aeration system expected in September
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The aeration system at Oak Lake is expected to be installed in September as parts have been ordered, fisheries biologist Mark Lowdon told the Sun.
Lowdon, who is working on the project, said equipment is planned to arrive sometime in late August or early September. A team will then install a pump on the shore of Oak Lake Beach and lay underwater pipes about 3,000 feet out into the lake.
“It’ll be sometime in September where we actually run all of the lines and get her going,” said Lowdon. “That’s the tentative schedule.”
Working with the Souris River Watershed District, the team plans to shelter the new pump in a shed at Oak Lake Beach. The equipment will push oxygen out to bubblers in the lake, improving water quality.
Installation is important before winter. Lowdon said there is a noticeable benefit that will come in the colder months.
“The other thing that it does is, it keeps the ice off,” Lowdon said. “There’s going to be an area that’s going to be ice-free all winter long.”
The equipment at the bottom of the lake disrupts the freezing process of water at the surface. It bubbles oxygen up from the warmer depths, and creates a constant flow of movement, making it hard to freeze.
As a result, an open area is going to be breathing and bringing oxygen to the lake all winter, Lowdon said. He expects that an area of roughly half-a-kilometre around the aeration bubblers will be high in oxygen.
The effect will spread through the lake, he said.
“The majority of the lake, the oxygen levels are going to be adequate for maintaining fish life in that lake over the winter,” Lowdon said. “It basically is going to revitalize the whole lake and allow for fish (through the) winter.”
When oxygen levels drop too low, walleye fish are the first to suffer, Souris River Watershed District general manager Dean Brooker told the Sun last month. Others, like Brandon East MLA Glen Simard, have commented on the value of fishing in the area, and investing in that recreational value.
Teams will do testing on oxygen levels throughout the winter to track whether a second aeration system makes sense in the lake, or if one is doing the trick.
Oak Lake is one of several communities to look to aeration to turn lakes around. Local groups have installed the technology already in Pelican Lake, Killarney Lake, and Shoal Lake in the last 10 years, with people from Pelican Lake and Killarney Lake telling the Sun the devices are stopping fish die-offs and keeping beaches open longer due to reduced algae.
»cmcdowell@brandonsun.com