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Tuesday July 14 2015 11 ENVIRONMENT REMEDIATION 6.8103 in x 6.3125 in By MEAGAN WOHLBERG The lake in the heart of Yellowknife has been dead so long residents likely forget that families used to swim and boat there during the summer and that First Nations once net- ted jacksh there from camps along the shore. Now it would be weird to see someone out there with a kayak. People would think that persons crazy Stephen Ellis of Tides Canada said of the downtown lakes cur- rent state. But the partners behind a new research project are hoping to nd the solutions be- hind the problem that is Frame Lake reviv- ing the waterbody once more as a habitat for sh and recreational hotspot for Yellowknife residents. Tides Canada has partnered up with Envi- ronment and Natural Resources ENR the Royal Bank of Canada and scientists from Carleton University to determine whats re- sponsible for the death of the lake and what can be done to remediate it. The main problem with Frame Lake cur- rently is that is unclean Ellis said. A thick rotting black goo lines the bottom of the lake consuming all the oxygen in the water while the lake is iced over during winter leav- ing the water uninhabitable by sh. Scientists believe the problem might be due to a former stream connection to Niven Lake which was used as a sewage lagoon or that such sludge was dumped in Frame Lake decades ago before regulations were in place. Once a remediation solution is identied the hope is that the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans DFO will fund the cleanup through its sh habitat compensa- tion fund which uses money garnered from legal nes against sh habitat offenses to pay for reclamation projects. Here would be a project that might in- volve DFO...but regardless of that its prob- ably a good idea to identify what the problem is gure out some solutions and once thats done see if there could be a multi-stakeholder initiative to see if this thing can be reclaimed or not Ellis said. Ellis expects the team to have a good handle on the science within the next year. Mean- while the next step is to nd the necessary partners to bring the lake back to life includ- ing First Nations and residents. That started on Saturday with a preliminary community cleanup where boats actually went out to haul junk from the lake while others cleaned along the shoreline and trails. Thisisthemainlakeinthemainurbancen- tre of Yellowknife that a lot of the population of the territory sees every year or every day and I think visions of people swimming and shing there again would be something that people would be pretty excited about Ellis said. Why cant it be like it was in the 60s Work underway to revive Yellowknifes Frame Lake PhotoStephenEllis Bruce Hanna of Environment and Natural Resources pulls a discarded tire from the bottom of Yellowknifes Frame Lake during a cleanup on the afternoon of Saturday July 11 to celebrate the launch of efforts to reclaim the lake and make it safe for sh again.