An official with the provincial government says it’s tough to say at this point what effect industrial pollution may be having on rain in northwest Saskatchewan.
Kevin McCallum is the chief engineer for the Ministry of Environment and one of the lead researchers on the boreal initiative.
It is essentially a study of acid rain in northern Saskatchewan.
He explains the work has been underway for about a year now and involves a lot of lake samples.
However, so far, they haven’t found anything conclusive:
“We’ll take core samples from various lakes all throughout the northwest and northeast side of the province. We’re looking at the history of the lakes, so this is dating the lakes through the sediments all the way back about 100 to 150 years. We’re looking at the impacts. Right at this point, we’re seeing some interesting signals, but nothing definitive.”
He adds some findings have been published in science journals.
McCallum says the research is scheduled to run until 2016.