Walking on the water
oor old Buffalo Lake.
It never had any preten­
sions of grandeur like Lesser
Slave Lake or Lake Athabas­
ca. It was never a brash, upstart lake
like Sylvan, nor did it beg to have its
picture taken like that vain Louise.
No, Buffalo Lake was perfectly con­
tent to be little more than an over­
grown prairie slough. Albertans who
stumbled upon Rochon Sands Provin­
cial Park accepted the lake for what it
was: a lovely hideaway for bird-watch­
ing and wading. Nobody expected
Waikiki, so no one was disappointed.
Buffalo Lake prospered in relative
obscurity, sparkling under the sum­
mer sun without a care in the world,
until Premier Don Getty won the
Stettler byelection. That's when its
troubles began.
All of a sudden somebody in Ed­
monton resurrected a plan to raise
the water level, and stabilize the lake
for boaters and swimmers. The idea
had been tossed out years earlier be­
cause
of
the
environmental
consequences, but with the election, it
bobbed to the surface like a pop can
in Pigeon.
Then the premier built his new
homestead on land overlooking Buf­
falo Lake, later buying 640 acres adja­
cent to his property for a reported
$209,000. His aide said he planned to
"throw a few cattle on it" or use it for
hunting, but Stettler rumor had it he
was planning something bigger —
much bigger.
Alone at night, Buffalo Lake started
to ripple with apprehension.
The government began to plan a
new environmental study just in case
— by some slight error in judgment —
the scientific experts had been wrong
the first time (accidents happen, don't
they?). Albertans were told that the

fo

timing of the new study after the bye­
lection was just another coincidence.
When West Yellowhead M L A Gerry
Doyle questioned the propriety of
Getty's lobbying efforts for the $15
million Buffalo Lake project so near
his own property, the premier replied
he was only defending the interests of
a community with the potential to be
one of Alberta's top tourism areas.
Think of it. Majestic Banff, breath­
taking Jasper, magnificent Kananaskis — and Buffalo Lake.
"One of the keys to it is having a
healthy Buffalo Lake as a recreationtourism attraction, and we're going to
do all the necessary things from an
environmental point of view, and then
we're going to make it happen," the
premier said in early December,
taunting his NDP critic: "Isn't it too
bad?"
Well, Buffalo Lake thought so. The
signs were everywhere that the pre­
mier just wouldn't leave it in peace.
Since Getty had come to the
constituency, Stettler had been
awarded the 1991 Alberta Summer
Games, a $500,000 alcohol and drug
abuse treatment centre, and $750,000
in grants for a new tennis court and
other recreation facilities. •
Getty has asked environment offi­
cials to try to build an experimental
waste incinerator for the county. A
Calgary firm wants to construct a $48
million greenhouse in the area. With
all this busy activity, would anyone
leave a little lake alone?
These days Buffalo Lake sees the
writing on the wall. Pitch-and-putt
golf courses. Water slides and pony
rides. Hot dog stands in the Rochon
Sands. Goodbye to the ducks, hello to
the weekend yahoos.
If bodies of water could weep, this
one would weep buckets.