2022 Water Quality Report 

The Muskoka Lakes Association (MLA), Canada’s oldest lake association, was founded in 1894 to represent the lakeshore residents in the Muskoka Region. It has operated “The MLA Water Quality Initiative”, (WQI) a monitoring program focused on Lakes Rosseau, Joseph and Muskoka and including many smaller surrounding lakes, since 2002. The MLA’s water quality efforts are concentrated on:

•Protecting and promoting water quality through their monitoring program and

• Promoting responsible land use

The MLA Environment Committee manages over a hundred volunteers to collect annual water quality data and retained Hutchinson Environmental Sciences Limited (HESL) in 2021 to analyze their data and to provide recommendations and program modification/development options. This Water Quality Report presents the most recent data collected in 2022 and compares it to data collected from 2002 to the present.

The MLA and their volunteers monitored 55 areas within 18 lakes and rivers for a total of 700 samples between May and September in 2022. Each sampling area represents a geographic location encompassing a group of WQI monitoring sites, usually focussed on a river, lake or embayment of interest to the MLA. Samples were collected for analysis of total phosphorus (TP) and bacteria (E. coli and total coliform), with water and air temperature and Secchi depths recorded at each site.

Executive Summary - Click here

Full Report - Click Here

Click HERE for our interactive map.