Real action needed to clean up Lake Winnipeg
This week, the Manitoba government announced what they claim is a significant move toward cleaning up Lake Winnipeg.
The government established new nutrient targets that they say will protect Manitoba’s lakes and rivers for future generations. Tracy Schmidt, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, described the announcement as a major step forward in water quality protection for Manitobans.
The regulation, which sets the first formal nutrient reduction target for Lake Winnipeg and its tributaries, aims to improve water quality in Manitoba. According to Schmidt, these nutrient targets will help guide future nutrient reduction activities, establish priorities, and provide a measurable benchmark for progress.
But will these measures lead to change? Setting limits and targets sounds good in a press release, but without enforcement, they amount to little more than a photo opportunity. The truth is, Manitoba has been down this road before, and the outcomes have not been encouraging. Requirements and deadlines have been put in place only to be ignored or not enforced.
Too early to celebrate yet though. Talk is cheap. So tired of the many decades long political blah blah blah when it comes to Lake Winnipeg pollution. More ‘nutrient targets’? Translation, farmers? The City of Winnipeg contributes millions of litres of the same ‘nutrients’ that the average person calls mostly human shit into the Red River and thence on downstream into our once pristine, beautiful lake. One the way to final destination the polluted river flows through the City of Selkirk. How bad is it? This bad. Since 2004 the total is reported to be 185 MILLION litres of raw sewage! Real action was desperately required decades ago.
Thank you for your service, provincial and municipal politicians. (sarc off)