ST. PAUL – On Sept. 17, conservation officers from Forestry and Parks removed a car that had been submerged in Floatingstone Lake for nearly a year.
Prior to its removal, Roland Letendre, a part-time resident of the County of St. Paul, had been speaking with authorities regarding the vehicle, expressing concerns about the environmental impact the car might cause on the lake and land.
He is relieved to see the car finally removed from the body of water.
“I went to the dump yesterday and when I was coming back, I saw all these vehicles parked at the boat launch,” he told Lakeland Today on Sept. 18. There were conservation trucks all over the place, he said.
He approached an inspector. “Super nice guy,” said Letendre. “He thanked me for being diligent in this venture to get the car out.”
Letendre contacted multiple agencies, including RCMP, Environment and Protected Areas, Forestry and Parks, and Fish and Wildlife, and was given the response of “overlapping jurisdictions” many times.
He believed this was the reason it took nearly a year to remove the car.
Letendre questioned what the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was in situations when a vehicle gets submerged in a lake.
After the car was removed, he said the inspector told him that an SOP will be put out throughout the province, so when a car does go into a waterway in Alberta there will be fewer delays moving forward.
“Nobody would take responsibility for the car, and that's why it all went almost a year,” before it could be removed, said Letendre. Ultimately, “I’m super happy."
Jason Wallsmith, CAO for the County of St. Paul, also thanked the province for the car’s removal.
“The County is pleased that the car has been removed, preventing any further contamination of the lake," said Wallsmith.
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