| Fighting Roadsalt Pollution |
Rescue Lake Simcoe is an active member of the Ontario Road Salt Coalition, helping steer advocacy to reduce salt pollution across the province.
We are supporting calls for a limited-liability framework for commercial winter maintenance contractors — a policy that helped reduce salt pollution by 40% in New Hampshire. This common-sense legal reform would protect property owners who follow best practices for winter maintenance from litigation. It would also help reduce the amount of chloride entering our lakes, rivers and aquifers.
We are making headway with nineteen municipal resolutions passed resulting from our work. Claire is going to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference this week to keep building momentum! Our incoming Executive Director, Jonathan Scott, highlighted this work in a recent Rogers TV interview, in his role as Chair of the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority.
| Investing in Innovation to Reduce Phosphorous from Agricultural Wash Water |
Our incoming Executive Director, Jonathan Scott, also recently joined provincial cabinet ministers, municipal officials and farmers to learn about a new provincial funding program to reduce phosphorus pollution into the lake.
When vegetables are harvested, they’re washed to clear off the soil. But that “wash water” can carry phosphorus pollution into the Holland River and Lake Simcoe.
With this new $3 million Farm WISE Fund, local growers will have financial support to install better systems to treat and manage wash water — protecting the watershed while improving on-farm efficiency. Not bad.
Learn more from the province of Ontario.
And watch how farmers use these funds to keep Lake Simcoe clean.
| Canada Summer Job Students Advancing Research & Community Engagement |
This summer, RLSC summer students have played a key role in:
- Supporting research for our upcoming fall report on the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan;
- Conducting community outreach at nine local farmers’ markets and events so far,
engaging residents on issues ranging from shoreline health to water quality; - Researching and writing three timely blogs, about beach health, funding the lake’s
recovery, and the infrastructure damage costs of salt, which we will release as a
series during World Water Week – August 26 – 30th.
Their work is helping us build an informed, mobilized public voice for the lake. Thank you, Kumar and Georgia!
| Step Forward on Phosphorus Pollution—At Long Last |
The Ontario government has released funding for the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury to begin design, engineering and site selection for a new phosphorus recycling facility.
This long-overdue project targets one of the biggest threats to Lake Simcoe’s health: phosphorus pollution. Once built, this facility will reduce the amount of phosphorus from entering the watershed by 2 – 10%, improving water quality and ecosystem resilience.
We will continue working to ensure the project delivers on its environmental promise at long last. Learn more.
Thank you, Claire Malcolmson
After seven years of dedicated leadership, Claire Malcolmson will be stepping down as Executive Director of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition at the end of August. Claire has been a tireless, fierce advocate for Lake Simcoe, pushing for policy change to protect our watershed. Thank you, Claire!
Your support makes our advocacy possible. As we prepare to release a major report this fall about the state of the lake and its governance, and enter a critical phase of speaking up for the lake, we need your help to keep Lake Simcoe’s health on the agenda.
We hope you found this update helpful. Thank you for reading. If you found this interesting please share our newsletter with a friend. Do you have a story idea, or a question you want answered in a future newsletter? Let us know! Please contact jono.dw.scott@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
Your Rescue Lake Simcoe Team,
Claire Malcolmson, Jonathan Scott, Jennie Ucar, Susan Sheard, Gail White, Michael Duffy,
and Jessica Merriman.
Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition