PATTERSON LAKE NEWSLETTER

October 2007
www.pattersonlake.bowerman.ca

A Possible Answer to Alkaline Lake Water

We have been trying to make sense of the alkaline water that showed up in our last Watershed Water tests of Patterson Lake. We have received some solid information and had one "Ah ha".

Ted Manning found on his cottage wall when he bought the property a 1961 map from Lands & Forest (L&F) Kemptville giving a depth profile of the lake and species and location of timber and aquatic plants, and fish species in the lake. It was taped together in sections. Ted took sectional photos of it, spent considerable time splicing them together, and then sent us a copy.

Wow! As a small size it was so-so, but at 150% enlargement the information will be a godsend for our Lake Management Plan.

I put the file up on our website in the LMP section as 1961L&F.jpg.

I phoned Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) at Kemptville to see if I could buy or obtain a better copy. In due course, a copy came of a 1969 L&F map of the lake which give the depth profiles, but no distribution of aquatic or timber species. But the notes that came with it were a revelation. I will print it entirely below, but here is the important part on alkalinity.

"The water is slightly alkaline with a pH of 8.3 at the surface. The water is clear with a Secchi disc reading of 17.5 feet."

In the testing done at a commercial water testing lab by one of our lake neighbours this summer, the results showed the water to have a pH of 8.3 - which is an exact match of the 1969. It has not changed. It was slightly alkaline in 1969 and it is slightly alkaline now. (By the way, the Secchi reading of 17.5 feet is the same as we have now so the clearness has not changed.)

The notes that came along from the water testing lab said that some southern Ontario lakes were alkaline while some northern Ontario lakes were acid.

Well OK. So why in the world would a lake in the Canadian Shield be alkaline?

On the Thanksgiving Sunday, the multi-talented research staff of 151 Lakeside Rd had an interesting discussion around the living room about pH of our lake. One thing led to another and Trevor Dee (our Son-in-Law) told of finding a very bright green rock covered with algae off Marys Island. He brought it back (he is a rock hound and polisher). He could not clear the junk off it so he took it home and cut it in two. He looked at it and thought it looked like marble, so he cut a few pieces and put them in for tumbling in the polisher. It turned out to be marble - white with grey streaks. Marble is compressed limestone and dissolved limestone is alkaline.

You will all have seen the rocks with holes in them around the islands. If what were in those holes was marble and it dissolved out over the millennia, then that would give the alkalinity to the lake. It is the best answer I have to date.

I Googled "marble rocks" and printed the answer below. (Metamorphism in rocks is defined as "a pronounced change effected by pressure, heat, and water that results in a more compact and more highly crystalline condition" - Webster's Dictionary).

Marble

What Type of Rock Is It? Metamorphic

What Does It Look Like? Often pure white. It may be streaked or patchy grey, green, tan, or red. Marble is fine grained to very coarse grained and crystals are usually easy to see. The rock is soft; it will not scratch glass (quartzite may look like a fine grained marble, but easily scratches glass). The powdered marble will often fizz with white vinegar. If it does not fizz, it may be dolomite marble.

What Minerals Make Up the Rock? calcite, or dolomite (dolomitic marble); Sometimes: graphite, pyrite, mica, tremolite, and a few others

How Was It Formed? Marble forms from the metamorphism of limestones."

Just to finish this part off, I Googled "alkaline water" and got all kinds of health related products from China. That was interesting, but what was more interesting was the widely used definition of slightly alkaline to be a pH of less that 9. Many of the products were around 9 or slightly more.

Notes from 1969 L&F Map

Physical Data

Latitude 45°00'

Longitude 76°32'

Surface Area 368 acres

Volume 4.863 acre feet

Height above sea level 659 feet

Perimeter 7 miles

Maximum depth 62 feet

Mean Depth 13.3 feet

Origin of Name

The lake was known as Patterson Lake as early as 1862. The earliest record of it as Patterson Lake is 1904.

Lake Characteristics

At the time of the survey this lake was thermally stratified with a surface layer, about 10 feet deep at a temperature of 76°F. The oxygen levels ranging from 10 to 7 parts per million, were relatively high for a stratified lake.

The water is slightly alkaline with a pH of 8.3 at the surface. The water is clear with a Secchi disc reading of 17.5 feet.

The total dissolved solids reading is moderate at 110 parts per million. This, together with a high percentage of water being in the littoral zone, and a large production of aquatic plants indicates a reasonably productive lake.

Fish Species Present

Yellow pickerel, smallmouth bass, northern pike, bluegill, yellow perch, rock bass, pumpkinseeed, white sucker, golden shiner, largemouth bass.

Fishing

Angling success on Patterson Lake is fair for yellow pickerel, northern pike and smallmouth bass and good for panfish. Yellow pickerel fishing is particularly good during the early morning and evening hours.

Access and Facilities

Hotel, motel, and camping facilities are available in and around Perth.

To reach Patterson Lake leave Highway 7 at Perth and travel north on County road No. 1, 13.9 miles to County road No. 8 at Watson's Corners. Drive west on No. 8 5.6 miles, then turn north onto the fifth concession line of Dalhousie Township. The south-west corner of Patterson Lake is 2 miles north on this concession line.

Survey Dates July 15-16 1968 - June 3, 1969

The above information is valid as of June 1969. Conditions subject to change.

In my opinion the directions are wrong - the 5^th will take you into the south-east corner and not the south-west. I left all the information in imperial measurements to make the day for Dave MacCrimmon - Lorne

Any Other L&F Maps?

If there are other pre-1990 L&F or MNR maps, or really any old information data about Patterson Lake, we would really appreciate it. All we need is the data itself and the name of the reference source. If we use it, we will give full credit to the original source.

Annual General Meeting

We had a smaller turnout to our AGM, but it was a very productive meeting.

We accepted the audited financial statement, and held elections to the Board. All of the previous Board were elected, and we will confirm everyone in their same positions at our next Board meeting.

We put in place the new set of by-laws, and I was very pleased to have it moved by Kathleen Sullivan and seconded by Ken Potter, the two other workers on the committee. It is a good set of articles and by-laws. This set is up on the website and that is the official set. It does not exist in any other format except the website format. Anyone wishing hard copy can simply print it.

The meeting was over in an hour, and we had time at that point for everyone to introduce themselves. The meeting was opened for a general discussion on anything that was bothering the members. Speeding boats too close to shore came up again.

Membership Dues

The 2007-2008 membership dues were set at $20 per property owner. If you have not paid the dues for this year, we would really appreciate it. Next summer we will start our set of Lake Management Plan meetings and will have to rent a hall.

If the support is sufficient, I would like to have our own domain name registered (I would try www.pattersonlake.ca) and have it hosted, but that costs about $150 per year. At present I am hosting it on www.bowerman.ca, but I don't go on forever. As well we are sending the newsletter out to all property owners regardless of whether they paid dues or not. We hope to convince our lake neighbors that it is the best $20 they will spend this year.

Please send your cheque to our Treasurer:

Howard Stanley

313 Hinchey Ave

Ottawa, ON K1Y 1M1

For those who have already paid, your receipt in included in this mailing.

The Septic Office and Patterson Lake

In the last newsletter I noted Jamie Saunders and the Sewage System Re-Inspection Program that operates from the MVC headquarters. I also noted that Lanark Highlands is not part of the program. I emailed Leonard Echlin and received the following reply to Leonard from Tim Simpson..

Leonard:

We do not have a reinspection program. I know Tay Valley Twp. contracts with the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority to do a fixed number of targeted reinspections each year. We have talked about this at Council in the past but there has been no appetite to proceed.

This is an issue that we can discuss during 08 budget as it has financial implications.

Tim

In my judgement I would like to see it put in place as it is one more tool that can be used to keep our lakes clean. I will continue to follow this.

A Time to Brag

The regulars at 151 Lakeside Rd started the Thanksgiving weekend a day earlier and we went up on October 5^th. The water at that point was about 21° at the dock. That is good enough to swim. So the well insulated, not so well insulated, and completely uninsulated residents went in for a swim. It was really a summertime swim. About one metre down the water was about 18° so if you kept near the surface, it was great.

That is the latest that I have ever been in for a swim. It may speak volumes about global warming.

Lake Management Plan

I mentioned earlier that we will start our data gathering for the lake as it is now. When that process is finished, we will be able to look back at earlier records to see how things have or have not changed.

The things that leap out first are things like fish, aquatic plants, trees, and birds. We have an immense amount of talent around the lake and the hope is to use that talent to do the program. Paying someone to do it is a waste in my judgement. I think our lake neighbours as well will want to see their name in the report as a symbol to our grands and great-grands that we cared for and loved this lake.

We haven't got all the details worked out yet but a good guess will be that the various interest groups will meet together, most likely at the Watsons Corners Hall, next year, break into groups and work on the areas of interest. I would think we will start off with the four listed above. We will grow from there.

As a start, I have listed below the fish, aquatic plants, and timber from the 1961 L&F map.

Fish
Smallmouth Bass, Yellow Pickerel, Northern Pike, Bluegill, Perch, Rock Bass, Pumpkinseed, White Sucker, Walleye

Aquatic Vegetation
Chara, Milfoil, Sweet Gale, White Water Lily, Yellow Water Lily, Smartweed, Curly-leaf Pondweed, Narrow-leaf Pondweed, Bulrush Cattail, Bladderwort, Tape Grass

Timber
Birch, Cedar, Elm, Maple, Oak, White Pine, Spruce.

I noted earlier that the 1961 map had the distribution in and around the lake for the aquatic plants and timber. I would hope we could look at what it is today.

Connie and I are long time birders and we have a list of the birds that we have seen at Patterson Lake. However, it is in our cottage log book and not available for this newsletter.

If we have others interested in rocks, reptiles, amphibians, algae, lichen, or whatever, please let me know. The most knowledgeable amphibians watchers I know are my grandkids so don't forget to ask the young ones about their interest. It would be a hoot to sit and watch a group of young people produce a list of frog species for the lake.

Lake Level

I will finish off this newsletter by reporting that the lake level is very low at this time, and indeed, I have to go back to 1995 to find a lower level, and that was in September. We usually have about 10" above the bottom of the culvert instead of our present 1". We are in good shape for the winter freeze-up with a low enough water level to reduce the risks of high water damage in the spring. But I have to add that the weather is completely unpredictable.

Newsletter

This Newsletter was written by Lorne Bowerman. As usual, Connie did the proof reading and polished it up a bit. Comments, suggestions, or articles are welcome.

613-225-7904

lorne@bowerman.ca