Mike Weinert, longtime owner/operator of Ghost Lake Recreations and manager of the provincial campground, is hopeful that June 28 will bring an end to a five-year-long rapid decline in his business as a result of controversial flood mitigation on the lake. Following the epic 2013 flood, the province has contracted Ghost Lake reservoir operator TransAlta to keep lake levels low until the high risk of flooding season has passed - early July. Ghost Lake residents, recreators and business operators have been highly critical of the mitigation efforts, asserting they would be inefficient at dealing with an historic event such as the flood of five years ago. During this time, Weinert's business has been devastated as the lake levels have been kept around 1,185 metres - or about 20 to 25 metres lower than normal, rendering the lake docks and his moorings unusable and delaying an already-short Alberta boating season by several weeks. "I'm hoping this is the end because the south launch will be fixed ... it's a wonderful project and it's what we've been fighting for," said Weinert, adding that the province's construction signs on the launch indicate the dock will be complete and ready for public use June 28. The project includes extending the dock deeper and longer, with rock and berm on the bottom and re-angling to make it usable during the springtime water lows - assuming the province will continue to keep the lake levels low in subsequent years. "By no means is Ghost Lake closed ... it's been really painful in the short term, but on June 28 we are back in business," said Weinert with clear relief. Due to construction to the Glenmore Dam, boating season in the Glenmore Reservoir will be significantly impacted this summer. All sailboats or boats requiring a trailer launch will not be permitted this year. Weinert suspects some of this overflow will head out to Ghost Lake. Currently, the north dock at Ghost is open, however the lake levels have rendered it unusable for a couple more weeks or until the water levels are brought back up. At this time, it is mainly kayakers and paddle boarders on the water. Prior to the flood mitigation efforts, Weinert's business was booming by late May with moorings at capacity, sail and motor boats of all shapes and sizes covering the lake by early June. The annual draw down on the lake begins April 1 each year. Dead Fish Hundreds of dead fish floating in Ghost Lake have raised concerns over the impacts on the fish populations from maintaining low lake levels as part of the province's flood mitigation. A Ghost Lake area resident, who requested anonymity, contacted the Eagle a couple of weeks ago inquiring about what he advised were "thousands of dead fish" he came upon in the man-made trench built between the Summer Village of Ghost Lake and Morley. According to the resident, it appears that the trenching, built last year by the province to accommodate for the low water levels, has had silt fill back in. "A fisheries biologist went to the Ghost Reservoir on Tuesday, May 8, in response to a report from a local resident of hundreds of dead fish," said Scott Lundy, assistant director of external communications for Alberta Environment and Parks. "Approximately 300 dead fish were found in a side channel. All of the fish, either suckers or lake chub, were in advanced states of decay. Fortunately, no sport-fish were killed. The likely cause of this fish kill is the reservoir’s seasonal low water levels." The resident maintains this is a clear example that demonstrates overkill by the province for a flood mitigation initiative that would be rendered useless in the event of a flooding event like that in 2013. "I believe this proves that the trenching is a failure and not doing what it was intended to do to prevent fish death. Sure, they may have not been any sport fish killed, but are these other fish not an important part of the food chain?" said the resident. "This shows that lowering of the lake to this level is doing environmental damage and should be returned to normal operation as in the past decades."
