***Original published in South Mountain Press, August 24, 2018***
A New Approach to the Vacation Home
Tucked up on a knoll overlooking spacious, luxury, holiday houses, sprawling horse pastures, and deer meadows is the newest home to the Onanole Mountain Estates neighborhood. The proud owner, Steven Sobering of Dauphin, gave me a tour of his vacation house being built by Onanole contractor Eric Bjornson, President of Sundial Building Performance.
The two bedroom, 800 square foot, high efficiency home is designed as a low footprint, environmentally friendly, housing option. But as Steven explained, this was not the driving factor that convinced him to become the first KITHOUSE Premiere owner. ‘It’s important to me to live within my means. But this two bedroom house gives me the chance to have quality at an affordable price’. At about $200,000 all in, he feels that the cost of this vacation get-away is a bargain.
The builder certainly does have an eye for functional quality while sourcing local and Canadian materials where possible. The interior walls are finished with high quality plywood that is esthetic and gives the building structural integrity. The thick cut beams for the cedar deck were sourced from recycled hydro poles cut by a company in Laurier. The interior has 640 square feet of living space and is hypoallergenic. The exterior is finished with a stylish shiplap vertical wood siding and the steel roof will need little maintenance.
If Steven’s lot location had been better suited, he could have opted for roof solar panels and his home would have been a truly net zero energy home. Even without creating his own electricity, the projected yearly utility costs are only $1000. The key to the energy savings is the foot thick, cellulose insulated walls and an airtight construction giving the house a R50 rating. A small heater of about the wattage of a hair dryer is all that is needed for winter heating.
One of the main advantages the builder wanted to offer with the KITHOUSE concept was the ability to pack all the necessary components in a cargo container. The house can then be trucked into remote locations where local tradespeople or the owner can construct the building. All of the specialized construction takes place in the company’s Winnipeg factory. Once the materials arrive at a prepared site, the building time is only on average 30 to 40 days.
For those customers looking for something more spacious, Mr. Bjornson has plans in the works for a three bedroom bungalow, a two story home, and even multi-unit apartments. The province and other government organizations are gradually bringing in legislation and incentives to encourage new home energy efficiency. Mr. Bjornson is hoping that home owners will choose his innovative and stylish home options.
Perhaps Steven Sobering is leading a trend away from the lavishness of some of his Mountain Estate neighbors. His new home is proof that Reduce, Reuse, Recycle does not automatically mean a product that is either too expensive or too shoddy.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
Clear Lake – Located in Riding Mountain National Park
***Original published in South Mountain Press, August 3, 2018***
Clear Lake Summer Report
Is it my imagination or has anyone else noticed that Clear Lake seems warm for this time of year instead of the usual anatomy-shriveling frigidity that I recall from my childhood?
Sean Frey, the Geomatics Coordinator for Riding Mountain National Park (RMNP), has studied and measured various metrics in the lakes of the Park. He was able to comment on their general state compared to historical norms.
Q1. Am I right to think that the water temperature of the Lake seems quite warm for this time of the year? Are there any identifiable trends in temperature, salinity, the thermocline, pollution, algae, water levels or parasite (The Itch) count between years past and now?
A1. The lake temperatures this year are warmer than usual. In the past ten years we haven’t observed June surface lake temperatures above 20°C (see the graph below) and this year they passed that mark. You can see on the graph by the dashed linear trend line there has been a general increase in May – August surface water temperatures on the lake in the past 10 years.
This appears consistent with longer term trends in climate in the area as the dates for ice off and ice on for Clear Lake show in the graph below.
Compared to records from the 1960s and 70s, the ice free period on the lake now appears to be earlier in the spring by over a week on average and later into the fall by over a week.
The good news so far is that trends in algae appear to be stable as the graph of Chlorophyll a Levels below illustrates. The levels were beginning to climb in the 1980s and 90s and have since stabilized possibly due to improved sewage and nutrient management.
As for water levels, they are lower this year than they have been in the past 20 years, though within a historical range of variation as shown in the graph below.
Q2. As for the other RMNP lakes, has there been the same type of scrutiny as Clear Lake and has there been anything particularly unusual that’s happened with any one of them compared to what’s been going on at the main lake?
A2. Riding Mountain monitors a suite of six backcountry lakes and four streams, although none has received the level of scrutiny afforded to Clear Lake. The most recent report indicates “Overall the backcountry lakes and streams in Riding Mountain appear to be in good health.” (Baird 2018). There is a detailed report graphing nutrients, turbidity, and temperature and oxygen profiles for the various lakes if people are interested.
Q3. Zebra Mussels are a great concern and the Park has extensive programs to keep them out of the water. But Whirlpool Lake is closed to the public due to a possible Zebra Mussel outbreak. Could you comment on the Park’s efforts so far and do you think you’ll be successful with keeping this invasive species out of the Park? One side effect of the bivalve molluscs in the Great Lakes was the filtering out of the pollution and actually cleaning up the water. Why is it so important to keep this species out of the Park?
A3. In managing national parks, Parks Canada maintains or restores ecological integrity, and provides Canadians with opportunities to discover and enjoy them. Parks Canada staff are working closely with visitors to keep aquatic invasive species (AIS) like Zebra Mussels out of park waters through watercraft inspections and strict decontamination procedures. The cooperation of watercraft operators is essential in preventing this threat to Park waters. 100% compliance is necessary to ensure the ecological integrity of Park waterways, as it only takes one contaminated watercraft to transport Zebra Mussels and other aquatic invasive species into the park.
Zebra Mussels are potentially the greatest threat the aquatic system in Riding Mountain has ever faced. While it is true that they filter and clean the water, they also irreversibly change the ecology and recreational value of the lakes and streams they take over. As a National Park, Riding Mountain has the mandate to protect representative plants and animals in their natural environment in a way that lets them persist for future generations of all Canadians.
If Zebra Mussels were to become established in one of the lakes in the Park, that lake would be permanently changed to a degraded ecological state and the Park would be unable to fulfill its mandate for that area. The community of fish, plants and other aquatic organisms in the lake would be changed and it is possible that some native species would disappear entirely from the lake. There is evidence that Zebra Mussel infestations can cause declines in fish populations and increase toxins in game fish.
We do not know of any treatment that is effective in eliminating Zebra Mussels, therefore the change would be permanent.
If a lake in RMNP were to become contaminated with Zebra Mussels it would threaten the integrity of all downstream water bodies and aquatic ecosystems, including streams that feed the Assiniboine River and Dauphin Lake, since the larval form of Zebra Mussels can float downstream and gradually colonize downstream waters. The risk of infestation downstream is considered very high and the watershed covers much of southwest Manitoba including many other water infrastructure and industry.
Zebra Mussels will attach to most hard surfaces and would be expected to interfere with irrigation systems at the Clear Lake Golf Course, impair water services within the community of Wasagaming including the neighboring Elkhorn Resort and portions of the RM of Harrison Park. Municipal infrastructure and services, including water services, could be impacted due to the disruptive effects of Zebra Mussels. The cost to mitigate this would be in the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That is why the Park is devoting so much effort in trying to make sure Zebra Mussels do not become established here through our inspection program and monitoring of lakes. Monitoring determined that environmental DNA of Zebra Mussels was present at Whirlpool Lake so we have closed that lake, and enhanced our monitoring there. So far results are encouraging that Zebra Mussels haven’t become established there but we are continuing to make sure.
Unfortunately it is all too easy to unknowingly transport Zebra Mussels in water from an infested area via boat ballasts, bilge water, and water in the end of a canoe, kayak or paddleboard and perhaps even in a beach toy. It is our responsibility to do all we can to protect the park as it is and encourage people to help us with our conservation efforts for the future.
For more information on the Park’s efforts to halt the spread of Aquatic Invasive Species and their watercraft inspection and permit program, you can visit the RMNP website: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/mb/riding/visit/moto-boat
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
Storms gather over the proposed landfill site in Harrison Park Municipality
***Original published in South Mountain Press, August 3, 2018***
Stormy Start to Four Winds Waste and Recycling Public Sessions
Call a municipal meeting to announce the building of a new school or hospital and councilors would be greeted with cheers and praise. But make a general announcement that your regional representatives are planning an oversize garbage landfill and the reception can be less then cordial especially from the people in the immediate neighborhood.
On Friday, July 27, representatives from the Municipalities of Harrison Park and Clanwilliam-Erickson, Rolling River First Nation, and The Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER) held Open House sessions in the communities of Newdale and Sandy Lake regarding the proposed Four Winds Regional Solid Waste and Recycling Facility. The information meetings were meant as a forum for the region’s residents to voice their queries and concerns directly to committee members involved with the project.
Discussions over the new waste facility turned out to be a contentious issue and the sessions were well attended. Newdale’s Drop-In Center was full with close to 50 people present and Sandy Lake’s Community Center had about 70 interested residents for the afternoon session.
Lloyd Ewashko, Reeve of Harrison Park Municipality, took the lead to describe where the two year effort to create the new Class 2 Waste facility was at and the proposed direction it was headed in.
It had already been identified long ago that the region’s waste management was going to become an issue. Pending provincial legislation and the fact that all of the region’s smaller landfills were approaching the end of their lifespans dictated that planning needed to start. To that end, starting about four years ago, a partnership was explored and created between Band and Municipal councils. Then when the Federal government announced their 2016 budget, the innovative Native/Municipal partnership was already poised to take advantage of monies available via Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). A ballpark figure of $6 million is earmarked to be used to cover the capital costs and other related expenses of the Four Winds project.
The process started moving forward in earnest mid-2016 after Neegan Burnside Ltd., an Engineering and Environmental consulting company, was hired to provide a Feasibility study to identify suitable locations within the region. Five sites were identified as possible locations. The owners of the parcels of land were approached and two sites became available for water flow testing. Then after contracting a realtor to negotiate the terms of sale, the selection was narrowed down to a parcel of land known as NW ¼ 4-17-20 (the South East corner of property adjacent to PTH 250 and Montcalm Road).
During a June 8, 2018 Harrison Park Special Meeting of Council, an evenly combined deposit from the two involved Municipalities of $50,000 was put down on the agreement to buy the land for $500,000.
The projected timeline for the Waste Facility to be online is still a year or two away as there are several steps to be completed. Some of the major hurdles yet to be cleared include an environmental licensing process through the Province, the development of a business plan to run the facility, and the creation of a final facility design.
As Reeve Ewashko pointed out, this project will create significant benefits to the region. The immediate advantage will be that the region’s population of about 4000 will have a state of the art facility with a 5000 ton/year waste reception capacity. Presently, the region generates between 3300-3500 tons of waste per year. The injection of ISC money will create construction jobs and later a projected 5 to 6 employment positions for Facility staff. All of the existing smaller waste facilities will be converted to Transfer stations thus spinning out their lifespans. Costs to shut down those sites have already been estimated at $1 million each. The modern facility will be more efficient then present sites and will allow for technology innovations such as gasification or incineration once or if those technologies become viable.
Also, as pointed out by Don Huisman, a Councillor for Erickson, the economy of scale of the facility will allow the region to move towards its goal of a 60% diversion rate. Quantities of compostable, recyclable, and reusable waste that have been filling the existing landfills will be able to be diverted due to scalability at the larger facility. As an example, mattresses are recyclable but without a proper storage facility or quantity, it was not feasible to have a truck from Winnipeg to come out for a regional pickup.
At only a 3% rate, the region is woefully behind the 17% recycling provincial average. As Councillor Huisman described, an ongoing Erickson pilot project regarding compostable materials has determined that each household is generating 12 pounds of ‘waste’ per week. For the entire town, that would work out to 60 tons per year that could be kept out of the landfill and put to better use.
As can be imagined, there were significant public concerns over the project and its management to date. Generally, it would be hard to find someone who at first would be enthusiastic to learn that a 30 to 40 acre ‘dump’ was going to be built nearby. So even though it was recognized that something needed to be done reference the region’s future waste management, the main question was why exactly was this site chosen and already negotiated to be purchased?
As Reeve Ewashko explained, the Management Committee relied heavily on the Neegan Burnside report to identify potential sites and as the process continued this parcel of land came out as the leading candidate. Then in order to move forward with the Province’s environmental licensing process, the land needed to be in the possession of the Municipalities.
The Reeve understood the environmental concerns of the residents such as the proximity of the Little Saskatchewan River and reassured the public that the land still had to pass a strict environmental licensing process and the facility would be built to proper environmental standards.
Another main complaint from those present was the scarcity of information regarding this potentially hot button issue considering it has been in the works for a number of years. The Committee took it under advisement that they could have done a better job communicating to the local residents regarding the project and took suggestions on moving forward.
Lastly, a group of concerned citizens delivered to Reeve Ewashko a written demand that the final sale of the parcel of land be conditional on successfully passing the environmental licensing process. They were adamant that the Municipality should not be on the hook for their $250,000 share of a chunk of land that could end up being unsuitable as a landfill site. The Reeve explained that unfortunately due to the licensing process potentially being a lengthy procedure, such a clause would be unworkable.
The next occasion for the public to voice their concerns and queries on the proposed Four Winds Waste and Recycling Facility will be on the 13, 14, and 15th of August when the Management Committee and the Neegan Burnside engineer will be available for questioning. Those times and locations will be publicly announced shortly and will address specific technical concerns that the Committee was not able to answer during the Open House sessions.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
