Sackville River Regional Park as envisaged in a 1979 report. (Click on image for a larger version ).View 1979 Report. View website for the Sandy Lake – Sackville River Regional Park Coalition for the current vision of this park.
UPDATE June 21, 2023: A set of Independent observations I have just learned about are consistent with our observations of low oxygen at depth, and additionally provide evidence of internal P loading. See below
UPDATE June 17, 2023: Clarification of “algal bloom” (2019) and “BGA warning” (2022)
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Update June 16, 2023: Water quality in Bedford’s Sandy Lake at ‘precarious levels,’ retired Dalhousie biology prof says Yvette D’Entremont in the Halifax Examiner, June 16, 2023
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The concept of a ‘Sandy Lake-Sackville Regional Park’ harks back to the 1970s, It would encompass lands surrounding Sandy and Marsh Lakes and the adjacent lands by the Sackville River (see map at right). In our first (2006) Regional Plan, reference was made to “Jacks Lake Park” as an “Additional Regional Park” focussed on the east side of the lake. There was reference to an existing “Sandy Lake Regional Park” – 130 forested acres on the east side of Sandy Lake officially opened in 2004 as the “Sandy Lake Park” – but lands to the west of Sandy Lake were given an “Urban Settlement” designation, meaning they were identified as an area for future growth (housing) in HRM, not conservation & recreation. (For more details see “2006 Regional Plan Note” at the bottom of this post).
The Urban Settlement designation set in motion a requirement for a watershed study under Policy E-17 of the 2006 Regional Plan (see pp 44-52 in AECOM 2014 for details).
The desktop study (except for a few water samples taken in 2013), requested in June 2013, was completed Aug 25, 2014. From AECOM 2014: Continue reading
