Winagami Lake

Source Information

Alberta Health Services (AHS) monitors beaches across Alberta. Water samples are collected by AHS staff and processed by Alberta Public Laboratories. More information on their monitoring can be found here: https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/71f0b5ea-b295-4677-afc6-0905641f0694/resource/372d1058-9c90-4da6-a56e-98395dad4a59/download/alberta-safe-beach-protocol.pdf When a Water Quality Advisory is issued, a notice is put up on accessible points along the water body/at the beach indicating that the location is unfit for swimming or bathing. In addition, a Water Quality Advisory is issued through the AHS website, local and social media platforms. An advisory is rescinded once water quality meets the above standards. Advisories are posted online to https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/news/bga.aspx and circulated by local media. Appropriate signage is posted around the water body (public beaches, access points, campgrounds, etc). These advisories remain in place for the duration that the health risk persists. The Lesser Slave Watershed Council (LSWC) does not publish these notification to our Swim Guide pages, nor is Swim Guide able to share monitoring data for Alberta beaches on an ongoing basis, as AHS does not share water quality test results with the public. However, the LSWC does take water quality samples at 16 sites across the Lesser Slave Watershed! These sites are not beach-related, but the results affect the quality of water in Lesser Slave Lake. We sample on each tributary that flows into Lesser Slave Lake! Check out or water quality data on our website: https://www.lswc.ca/water_quality_monitoring or on the Mackenzie DataStream portal: https://mackenziedatastream.ca/ Have questions about our water quality monitoring, the organization, where to find resources, or something different? Contact us! We are here to help. info@lswc.ca (780) 523-9800