Sampling

• Samples have been taken at 20 sites representing all parts of the lake.

• Three samples were also taken from the Petite-Nation River, at the south end of the lake.
  



• A sample was taken from the Petite-Nation River, at the north end of the lake,  and one as well from the Ernest Creek.
  

Results

• The water is always of excellent quality for swimming at lake Gagnon.

• There is no faecal coliform at all in almost half the samples, i.e. 11 out of 23.

• Other areas on the lake still yielded excellent results for swimming.



• The sample taken in the Ernest Creek, as well as the one taken in the Petite-Nation, at the north end of the lake, yielded levels of faecal coliforms much higher than those taken from the lake (108 and 110).
  

Follow-up

Given the rather high results from the two samples taken from the Ernest Creek and the Petite-Nation River in mid-August we took 10 further samples from different locations at these two sites in mid-Sptember.

The results at the Ernest Creek were 60, 52, 61, and 49, starting near the lake and going upstream toward the bridge near the Gagnon entrance to the Reserve.

The results from the Petite-Nation River, north of the lake, were 10, 8, 8, 63, 12 and 20, starting from the lake and going upstream as far as the bridge in the Papineau-Labelle Reserve.

Since these results relate to a fairly long strech of uninhabited portions of these rivers, we presume that the faecal coliforms are from animal rather than human sources.