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2018 11 04 Thorah Centennial Beach Drone

2019 04 19 Runoff along conc 9

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2018 11 04 Thorah Centennial Beach Drone

1/23

STOP THE UNETHICAL

DUMPING OF SEDIMENT

INTO OUR LAKE

HELP REPORT SEDIMENT RUNOFF:

CLICK TO REPORT

OR CALL:
1 (866) 663-8477

THE PROBLEM

SOS Beaverton is a group of concerned citizens who want to protect the health of Lake Simcoe now and for future generations.

We want to stop the ongoing dumping of sediment and chemicals into Lake Simcoe. Asian vegetable farming on the east shores of Lake Simcoe north of Beaverton by a farming conglomerate take up to 18 million litres of water a day from the lake for irrigation purposes. These types of crops are grown in saturated soils which is known as muck farming. The irrigation water then returns to the lake bringing sediment, fertilizers and other chemicals with it. Resulting large brown plumes affect the health of the lake. Fisheries, recreational water users, beaches, and water supply are all being drastically and negatively affected by this blatant dumping into our lake. Support us by signing this petition to revoke their permits to pump up to 18 MILLION LITRES OF WATER PER DAY from the lake!

Petition: We are currently petitioning the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to revoke water permits, and the Ontario Attorney General to enforce the Ontario Water Resources Act.

SHOW SUPPORT

Sign our online petition today to show your support to stop the ongoing dumping of sediment and chemicals into our lake.

GET INVOLVED

Join us in spreading the message about the dangers to our lake.

If you would like to volunteer your time to help we would love to hear from you.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to return our lake to a safe and healthy body of water that our children and wildlife can continue to enjoy for years to come.

SIGN HERE

news release #4

APRIL 28, 2021.

Thank you to all those who have assisted in our effort to have a cleaner, healthier lake. It has been one year since construction was completed (mostly) on the Goodyear Farm (GYF) in Beaverton in conjunction with the Lake Simcoe Regional Conservation Authority (LSRCA) to mitigate runoff into Lake Simcoe. Construction activities included two storm water ponds and the use of this storm water pond water for partial irrigation, three WASCOBs (Water and Sediment Control Basins), addition of ditches, stabilization of laneways, replacement of culverts, buffer and wind break plantings, grassing of waterways, and planting of cover crops.
Since then, further “hardening” of the LSRCA plan has been taking place by adding linear ditches to channel surface water into the water management ponds, spring planting of trees for berm stability and erosion control, and adding another WASCOB to mitigate runoff.

Overall runoff has decreased and we have seen visual improvement in lake water quality. However, runoff events continue to occur and it is important to identify which specific runoff corridors (7 in total) are draining into the lake in order for us to drive further mitigation improvements. Please call these events into the 24 hour spill hotline at 1-800-268-6060 operated by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks (MECP) when these happen.

On a related note, the MECP has provided funding to LSRCA to conduct a watershed analysis on White's Creek this summer 2021 in order to determine and mitigate the runoff problems that we have been calling in. This will deal with the complete catchment area for White's Creek to discover the source of the runoff and is an approach they have used successfully with "smaller" watersheds such as Scanlon Creek. We continue to point out runoff occurring from the Marydel housing development, particularly from the exposed berm that runs for a kilometer along the west side of the development parallel to the CN tracks. More to come.

Lastly, it has been reported the GYF in Ramara will not operate this year which should reduce runoff into the Talbot River and ultimately into Lake Simcoe.