Water Quality Targets

The goal of the Lake Simcoe Environmental Management Strategy (LSEMS) Implementation program is to restore water quality and fish habitat to conditions that support self-reproducing populations of lake whitefish and lake trout (species that are presently maintained in the lake through stocking programs).

A major objective of the LSEMS program is to reduce phosphorus loading to the lake by about 25% to achieve an annual load of 75 T/y. This reduction is needed to increase end-of-summer deepwater dissolved oxygen concentrations from present levels of about 3 mg L-1, to 5 mg L-1. This level of oxygen will ensure that the coldwater fish can survive and be self-sustaining. Phosphorus concentrations, when measured regularly at several locations, provide an indication of the trophic (or "nutrient enrichment") status of the lake, and when continued over long term can reveal progress (or lack of progress) towards the phosphorus loading objective. Several other lake processes can influence phosphorus concentrations in Lake Simcoe besides phosphorus loading (biotic interactions, invading species effects and year-to-year weather differences); long periods of monitoring are often necessary to gain some understanding of these impacts on lake function.

Water Quality Targets
Parameters
Sampling Methodologies
Sampling Locations and Data Download