A group seeking to find solutions to what it says are deteriorating water conditions in Humboldt Lake (AKA Stoney Lake) has put up a Go Fund Me page to raise funds for one specific aspect of its efforts.
“The Humboldt Area Farmland Irrigation (HAFI) Corporation was founded to be a part of the team that can give Stoney Lake the opportunity to heal,” says the commentary on the Go Fund Me page, established by Brian Klashinsky of the organization. Klashinsky says he and the group will be hosting an informal come and go information session this Saturday, April 26 from 10 am to 4 pm at Meeting Room 2 in the Humboldt Uniplex. The idea of the meeting is to inform people of the efforts being made to better the water condition and preserve the lake as a viable sport fishing and recreational facility.
The concern is the effluent discharged by the City of Humboldt’s wastewater system into the lake. The discharge has been ongoing via an open drainage channel, since 1954. In the ensuing years, Klashinsky says the water quality, including oxygen content and challenges with algae, has degraded.
The situation culminated in the spring of 2020 with a fish kill deemed by the Water Security Agency (WSA) as total, says the post.
“Our sole purpose is to undertake the rehabilitation of Stoney Lake,” said Klashinsky in an interview. “Our strategy is to intercept the effluent that’s being discharged by the City of Humboldt and divert it over to irrigating agricultural farmland.”
That’s where the Go Fund Me page comes in, Klashinsky explained. As part of the design for the new wastewater treatment area, the City of Humboldt has set aside a containment cell to hold the effluent from the discharge line and dedicated it to HAFI’s irrigation project. HAFI has secured an agreement with a local agricultural interest to see the land irrigated near the site. Now, studies and designs for the project need to be put in place.
Following a request for proposals and subsequent adjudication, engineering firm Stantec was selected to undertake the design phase. The WSA typically funds up to 86 percent of the costs of such work, the balance coming from the applying organization. That remaining 14 percent of the preliminary design cost amounts to the $32,000 that HAFI is seeking via the Go Fund Me page.
Klashinsky was quick to point out the cooperation offered by the City of Humboldt in undertaking the containment cell that will go toward the project with the goal of seeing the nutrient rich effluent diverted from the lake to a more environmentally sound destination.
As for the Saturday gathering, Klashinsky says it’s part of the first step in creating a catalyst for future action.
“We just want to give everybody an opportunity to say hi, get excited, and see if we can generate some energy in the room and in the community, and have people recognized the value of Humboldt Lake to the community. It’s thinking about tomorrow when we can all go out there and have our grandkids in the water.”
The Save Stoney Lake meeting is from 10 to 4 this Saturday at the Uniplex. Everyone is welcome.
Click here to access the Help Save Stoney Lake Go Fund Me Page.
Discover Humboldt will follow up with more details on the Humboldt Lake Project, along with news on the progress of Humboldt’s new multi-million dollar wastewater project.