Sampling As Normal for Lake Partner Program After Funding Agreement Signed

Jeff Green | Jul 04, 2025

Earlier this spring, the Federation of Ontario Cottage Associations (FOCA) was concerned about the future of the Lake Partner Program (LPP). The LPP is a volunteer based citizen science initiative that has been collecting data on water quality in lakes across Ontario for decades.
The program provides information about water clarity, and crucially, phosphorus and calcium levels, indicators of the risk of algae blooms developing, and other water quality issues.
Samples are collected by volunteers, and are then delivered to the Dorset Environmental Science Centre, which has a Ministry of the Environment lab to test the water samples for phosphorus, calcium chloride and water clarity.
The five year agreement between FOCA and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, to provide the lab work and maintain the database, lapsed earlier this year. FOCA became concerned that the program would lose its funding, and data that has been collected for many years would immediately start to lose its value. Continuity is a key factor in the value of historical testing data.
However, the ministry indicated in May that it intended to continue to support the program, and that has come to pass with a new agreement having been signed with FOCA.
“FOCA has a signed agreement with the ministry that enables us to continue the LPP over the coming five years, with the support of our hundreds of volunteer lake stewards throughout the province, “ said a FOCA media release, last week.
FOCA is telling its network of lake stewards across the province to proceed with summer sampling if they haven’t already.
“The Assistant Lake Stewardship Coordinator is back in action, and your returned samples will be processed at the ministry lab as usual“ said FOCA CEO Lesley Lavender.”
”I want to thank our longstanding partner FOCA for their excellent delivery of the Lake Partner Program – the largest of its kind in Canada – and the hundreds of dedicated community volunteers taking water samples from their local lakes every summer,” said Todd McCarthy, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. “By continuing to support this vital program, we are able to monitor water quality and take action when needed, to protect the health of lakes and communities across Ontario.”
About the Lake Partner Program
The goal of the Lake Partner Program is to better understand and protect the quality of Ontario’s inland lakes by involving citizens in a volunteer-based water quality monitoring program.
Scientific analysis of the samples is conducted at the Inland Waters Section of the Environmental Monitoring and Reporting Branch of the Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks (MECP lab).
Samples are tested for total phosphorus, calcium, chloride, sulphate, and water clarity. After careful scientific quality-checking, the dataset is released to the volunteers, the public, researchers and other scientists.
The LPP dataset spans nearly three decades, and can assist in the early detection of changes in the nutrient status and/or the water clarity of the lakes, due to the impacts of shoreline development, climate change and other stresses.
To access data from lakes that have in the past, or continue to participate in the program, go to https://foca.on.ca/lake-partner-program/ where along with a program description, there is mapping of all lakes in the province that have submitted data, and a history of sampling results.
Many of the lakes in Frontenac County and Addington Highlands have participated in the program since its inception and now have 25 years of data available on the site. The good news is, that in most cases, phosphorus and calcium levels on the lakes have remained steady or dropped over that time, thanks to the efforts of lake associations and property owners to limit phosphorus loading through shoreline restoration, improvements to septic systems and other initiatives.
Shabomeka Lake, which is located near Cloyne on the border between North Frontenac and Addington Highlands, has been involved with the program since 2002. Shabomeka Lake Association President Rob Kapuscinski expressed support for the program’s continuation this week, saying the program is a good way to ensure that the water quality at Shabomeka is headed in the right direction over time.
“We collect and submit samples from the upper and lower basins,”he said this week. “Lake clarity remains constant but we’ve seen a decrease in overall phosphorus levels.”