What The Heck Is That? — Our industrial Lake Louise – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – May 16, 2019)

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Few people would mistake Sudbury for Banff, and yet there is one spot just northwest of the city off MR 35 that I like to think of as our own little Lake Louise.

Easily spied on the west side of the road near the turnoff to William Day Construction, its surface is a vivid turquoise that has no doubt caught the attention of a few passing motorists other than myself.

It jumps out just as much, if not more, when you look at it from an aerial, satellite perspective in Google Maps, its hue so distinct from the other water bodies around it — more San Jose teal than Maple Leafs blue.

Admittedly it doesn’t have the scope or backdrop of the wonder of the Rockies. Our modest gem is ringed by lowish, largely treeless cliffs; size-wise, it is equivalent to Minnow Lake.

Also, as it turns out, it’s not even a lake — at least, not in the typical sense. It’s a flooded pit, affiliated with the defunct Murray Mine. The pit lake on Vale mining property owes its vivid colour to acidification of the water, which eliminates organic matter and allows sunlight to penetrate deeper, according to local experts.

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