Committee will try to rectify Sherburne Lake boat launch issue

A public meeting was held in Taber Thursday evening to discuss what to do about reopening up boat access to Sherburne Lake (Grassy Lake) after the boat dock there was recently shut down by the St. Mary River Irrigation District due to zebra mussel concerns.

Reeve Brian Brewin of the MD of Taber said he expected the meeting to have more fireworks, but was pleasantly surprised when all was said and done.

“It wasn’t too heated at all,” confirmed Brewin, “which was a little bit to my surprise. But when the SMRID explained the situation, and the damage these mussels can do, I think everybody realized we need to work together to find a solution to this.”

During the meeting a committee was struck to examine potential solutions in more detail, said Brewin. Committee representatives will meet with the SMRID board next Thursday.

“A committee has been set up to see if we can set up some sort of a gate system there, which people will get a key to after their boat has been inspected or prove their boats haven’t been out of province. It was a very productive meeting.”

SMRID general manager Terrence Lazarus said he looked forward to seeing what proposals the committee comes up with.

“We are irrigators first but we certainly support, and allow, people to recreate on our waters. We are not going to stop boating. We have just temporarily suspended the use of the boat launch. It was an unsupervised boat launch, and we now require as part of our program (to prevent aquatic invasive species) that all boat launches be supervised. So we want to see there is someone always there monitoring the boats that might be from out of province that have not been inspected.”

Lazarus said the consequence of allowing zebra mussels to establish themselves in SMRID waters would be catastrophic.

“As irrigators it is our responsibility to move the water through our system efficiently. If those mussels get established in the system the consequence will be millions of dollars to the SMRID and the destruction of the fishery in the lake.”

“The intent of this reservoir is for irrigation purposes,” agreed Brewin. “(Recreational users) certainly need to be respectful of that.”