Originally Posted by CDSmith

You have to realize that not all lakes are cut from the same cloth. The ecosystem on this lake is very different from a lot of others in the world, especially those in N America. For one thing it's in the heart of the Canadian Shield, among thousands of lakes that were glacier formed and grinded out of rock. Then there's the item I already mentioned, about this being a pristine lake at the top of the water table in the region, and believe me this region is massive. Size of the lake matters as well, and Nym Lake is quite large. A little mouse shit here or there near the shore isn't going to taint the entire lake, more like a few drops of it.

I'd say aside maybe from the dog days of August when there's a lot of sediment hanging in the water with little to no undercurrents, you could definitely take a gulp of water out of this lake and feel good about it. I can think of only a couple of pristine lakes in central Canada that come close to this one, Shoal lake being one, which incidentally is the lake that fed the city of Winnipeg most of it's water supply for many decades.

I'm not saying you're wrong in what you're saying, I'm just saying you might not want to paint all lakes and ecosystems with the same brush.