Kalamalka Lake is one of the 10 most beautiful lakes on this planet and this makes Kalamalka Lake and the surrounding areas a place where many people want to live.
The title, “Lake of many colours,” does leave a hint of the associated magnificent beauty of this lake. Having lived next to this lake since 1992, for me the colour display is an ongoing phenomenon that is truly unique and a natural marvel. Kalamalka Lake is unique in more than one way, and not all of those ways are favourable.
Kalamalka Lake has no major rivers to provide a good flushing action during high water flow periods. The lake is therefore somewhat of a settling pond. During a heavy downpour, all run-off goes into the lake and stays there.
The water coming through from Duck and Wood lakes does not have much of a flushing effect. Similarly, Coldstream Creek which enters the lake on the east side with the outlet being hardly more than 1/4 kilometre down the shore, does not do much to renew the lake water.
Throughout this year and in the past, there has been ongoing talk about Kalamalka Lake and its recreational use. In utilizing this lake, the first and foremost issue is not the lake’s beauty but the fact the lake is a drinking source for many people living in the surrounding area. Because of this fact, water quality should move to the forefront when addressing the lake’s recreational use. I can’t say that I’ve heard much talk in the past about this important issue of drinking water quality in the lake. In this province, we are very fortunate that water is in general abundance, however, maintaining drinking water quality should and must be a priority for all concerned.
Let’s hope that everyone who holds a steward position in this regard will do the utmost to make sure our water is safe to drink. This should then help to prioritize all recreational use of the lake.
Last spring, the water table went higher than most other years and receded very slowly with localized flooding. The closure of boat traffic was a good move and kept shore erosion to a minimum. During that time the lake became a very quiet, serene place, and some letters and many comments were very favourable to such quiet surroundings. There is likely good support for keeping some sites to hand-launch boats as mentioned by Mayor Jim Garlick’s comments in the Oct. 13, 2017 issue of The Morning Star newspaper.
One has to realize that Kalamalka Lake is not a very large water body and heavy motorized boat traffic becomes a pollution issue whether in the form of added pollutants to the water or noise. In the U.S., several of the water supply reservoirs have boat quotas and once this quota is reached on any given day, no more boats are allowed on the water.
Maybe such a quota system could be the answer to the Kalamalka Lake situation. This would be up to experts in this field to determine.
During my work as a DFO fisheries officer, we checked many boats on lakes and rivers. Out of this work, we had made basically three categories of boat operators/owners: 1. the responsible; 2. the so-so responsible; 3. the irresponsible. These categories can still be found today.
We checked boat bilges that were squeaky clean and other ones where we hoped the bilge pumps would never kick in and empty the contents into a drinking water source.
Do all boats on Kalamalka Lake have porta-potties on board? I imagine with the amount of liquids consumed on hot summer days, if no porta-potty on board, then it will go overboard in our drinking water. How about enforcing this? Well, it would be challenging to go on patrol and gather evidence. Sample would be quickly diluted and therefore a rather big challenge to gather such evidence to prove in court. We can only hope that this unique special lake will be taken care of by our elected stewards and that the lake’s water quality be maintained and protected for all future generations to come.
Today, now in conjunction with the increasing popularity of the trail trail, the quiet serene surroundings of our magnificent lake will likely draw more and more people to the area who place a high value to our ever-diminishing area of our planet’s quiet urban living.
Albrecht (Al) Klopfenstein
Coldstream