Beach Samples Over Alberta's Blue-Green Algae Benchmark: Wabamun Lake vs Other Edmonton-Area Lakes

Share of each summer's beach water samples above the Alberta Safe Beach Protocol benchmark for blue-green algae (more than 50,000 cyanobacteria cells per mL, or more than 10 µg/L of the toxin microcystin), at Wabamun Lake, Isle Lake, Lac Ste. Anne, Pigeon Lake and Wizard Lake, and at every Alberta beach sampled, from 2013 (cell counts began in 2012). The 2022 benchmark is applied to every year. At Wabamun the share ran from 89% of 9 samples in 2016 to 7% of 14 in 2022, and was 36% of 14 in 2026 against 31% across Alberta; every Wabamun sample that crossed it did so on cell count, with microcystin never above 1.4 µg/L there since 2009. Isle Lake, on the county's northwest edge, was over in 8 of 11 samples in 2026. This is monitoring data, not the advisory record: Alberta Health Services issues advisories, and a sample over the benchmark does not mean one was. Samples per lake are small and not random (beaches are often resampled after a high result), Wabamun was not sampled in 2018, and the 2026 figures are preliminary.