Originally published in Lake of the Woods Area News, Volume 55, Number 3, Summer 2025
This spring, the Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation (LOWWSF) moved into the second of a three-year project that we are leading to tackle the algae and phosphorus issue locally. With funding from the Canada Water Agency’s Freshwater Ecosystem Initiative, LOWWSF is coordinating the development of a Domestic Phosphorus Management Plan (PMP) for Lake of the Woods.
Led by Meghan Mills, our International Watershed Coordinator, we are drawing on local and regional expertise to reduce phosphorus loads to Lake of the Woods. Phosphorus is the primary nutrient driving harmful and toxic algae blooms in Lake of the Woods.
While the PMP will build on years of scientific research and monitoring to identify clear phosphorus reduction strategies on the Canadian side of the watershed, we are also working closely with the federal and provincial governments, municipalities, Indigenous governments and communities, local stakeholders, regional experts and the public to ensure the plan reflects shared priorities and local knowledge.
So far in the project, our team has been focusing on “point sources” of nutrients—those facilities that have operating permits issued by governments that allow for monitored, measured quantities of nutrient discharges. Examples include municipal waste water treatment facilities and industrial facilities that produce effluents. Our team has been meeting with waste water treatment experts in the Rainy Lake, Rainy River and Lake of the Woods areas to learn more about challenges, needs, and best practices that ensure waste water is treated sufficiently to limit the amount of nutrients and contaminants entering our shared waterways. We are also looking at other federally or provincially permitted facilities, engaging permit holders in conversations to identify opportunities to enhance performance under those permits.
Throughout the summer and fall, we are expanding our work to include an investigation of “non-point sources” (NPS). NPS cover the diversity of natural and human-induced sources of nutrients from the landscape and air. Shoreline erosion and other runoff from rain, snowfall or artificial drainage that carry nutrients with sediments into receiving waters are all examples of NPS. NPS can also come from pollen, ash and dust landing on the lake. While it may be impossible to control some NPS, we are meeting and working with agricultural producers, mining industry experts, foresters, and other land use managers to begin to identify opportunities to develop and implement best management practices that will help to reduce NPS loads. A parallel project, led by Dr. Catherine Eimers at Trent University, is working directly with agricultural producers to optimize tile drainage installations in the Rainy River area to minimize nutrient runoff from these massive weeping tile systems underlying agricultural fields in the region.
Our work is guided by two oversight committees. An Indigenous Engagement Committee helps us connect with Indigenous knowledge holders and communities, including lands and resources managers, who are also participating in our point-source and NPS working groups. A project steering committee includes technical experts, community experts and agencies personnel, including some from the American agencies responsible for developing and implementing Minnesota’s coordinated, adaptive management approach to water quality restoration.
This project is essential to protecting the lake and water systems we all rely on for recreation, drinking water, tourism, quality of life, and, importantly, for future generations.
For more information or to get involved, visit: lowwsf.com.
