History

History of the Qu'Appelle River Basin Research and Monitoring Committe

When LQWS held their first Annual General Meeting in 2013

  • Participants weren't happy with the set notional targets as set out in the LQWS Watershed Plan
  • Local cottage and home owners, business owners and Resort Villages were angry over the health of their lakes and wanted something done!
  • They want water quality restored and maintained, by setting new notional nutrient target levels for Pasqua, Echol, Mission, Katepwa, Crooked and Round Lakes.

A Motion was passed at this meeting to:

Establish a working group from the Lower Qu'Appelle Watershed members to:

  • To prepare a proposal for identifying the major contributors of nutrients and other pollutants to the Qu'Appelle River Basin to enable focused/targeted management actions;
  • To prepare a proposal for identifying flow, lake and oxygen levels required to protect fish and other aquatic life in the system; and
  • To liaise with Water Security Agency, specifically the aquatic impacts hydrology groups to obtain monitoring and research data from the basin and to obtain expert advice on applying this information to management of flows and pollutant sources.
  • To coordinate and include our two neighboring watersheds, Wascana Upper Qu'Appelle Watersheds Taking Responsibility (WQWTR) and The Moose Jaw River Watersheds; and to
  • Liaise with other watershed management agencies and stakeholder groups like the City of Regina, Ministry of Agriculture and Producers and also with those from Manitoba managing watershed's receiving Qu'Appelle River Waters.

The first meetings were challenging as various committee members had different perspectives on how to best organize and manage the work plan.

General consensus was finally agreed and the framework and path forward was agreed to!

  • Articulate the priorities for the Committee;
  • Summarize the current state of knowledge and current work being done;
  • Identify gaps and develope partnerships to fill those gaps; and
  • Finally to communicate and interpret results for public and watershed stakeholders.