My Watermark is Conestogo Lake, just north of Waterloo, Ontario.

The lake is a lake that is formed by a dam, which they use to control the water flow of the Grand River Conservation Area.

A positive thing is that it’s really close to where I and my family live, so the kids swim in it for most of the summer. We’ll also go water skiing and fishing as often as we can.

But the biggest issue is towards the end of the summer we get these huge algae blooms, and it’s the blue-green algae. It makes your cottage totally unusable for the last couple of months near the end of summer.

Something people could do to help prevent this is to maintain their septic systems better, and to stop using non-eco-friendly soaps, shampoos, and detergents in the lake. Also, the runoff from all the surrounding farms seeps into the river systems which brings more sediment. Which in turn brings the water levels higher and raises the temperature of the lake.

If we all came collectively we can help to change the environment. Such as maintaining or upgrading your septic systems and using eco-friendly soaps and detergents. These are all things we all can do to become better stewards of the water.