Water Quality Monitoring
Water quality monitoring conducted by ministry staff addresses the ministry's Service Plan Goal 1 of protecting the environment and human health and safety by ensuring clean and safe water, land and air, and the specific objective of ensuring safe, high-quality drinking water and reducing discharges that threaten water quality. The water quality monitoring program is supporting by corporate funding from the Environmental Protection Division's Environmental Quality Branch. Funding for water quality is received from both the branch's Water Protection (WP) and Water and Air Monitoring and Reporting (WAMR) groups.
The majority of water quality monitoring is conducted by the Lower Mainland Environmental Quality Section and is being conducted in ambient receiving waters divided into the following categories.
Water Quality Objectives Development / Amendment
Water Quality Objectives are developed on a site-specific basis and only for water bodies that may be affected by human activity (now or in the future). They are set to protect the most sensitive designate water use at a specific location and are developed with consideration for local water quality, water uses, waste discharges, and socioeconomic factors. They routinely provide policy direction for resource managers for the protection of water uses in specific waterbodies and guide the evaluation of water quality, the issuing of permits, licenses and orders, and the management of fisheries and the province's land base. Water Quality Objectives also provide reference against which the state of water quality in a particular waterbody can be checked, and help to determine whether basin-wide water quality studies should be initiated.
Information on Water Quality Objectives is available at http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wat/wq/index.html.
Current Water Quality Objectives Development / Amendment projects include:
False Creek Water Quality Objectives Amendment
In the provincial Burrard Inlet Water Quality Objectives report published in 1990, recreational activities were not recognized in False Creek. Since that time False Creek has become heavily used for recreational activities, as well as planned future developments in South East False Creek, and scheduled reductions to direct discharges into the inlet support the addition of a bacteriological water quality objective for False Creek.
South East False Creek (SEFC) is the location of major redevelopment plans by the City of Vancouver, including shoreline development and an area which will house the Vancouver site for the 2010 Winter Olympic Athlete's Village. Since 1990 there have been perceived improvements to False Creek water quality due to a number of initiatives undertaken by the City of Vancouver to reduce or eliminate direct discharges. The City of Vancouver and the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) are currently committed under the Liquid Waste Management Plan to continue working towards reducing or eliminating the remaining five combined sewer outfalls (CSOs) which discharge directly into False Creek. Raw sewage may also be directly discharged from pleasure craft into False Creek. This usage of False Creek has also grown significantly as there are now many marinas in the inlet and it is a popular moorage location.
Consequently, due to the high recreational usage, future development pressures, the potential that water quality has changed since 1990 and the potential for direct discharges into False Creek, an amendment to the Burrard Inlet Water Quality Objectives has been initiated. It is expected that this amendment will set bacteriological limits for False Creek waters that are protective of secondary contact recreational activities.
Okeover Inlet Water Quality Objectives Development (for the protection of marine shellfish resources, recreational uses and aquatic life)
The Desolation Sound area including Okeover and Lancelot Inlets, is a unique marine area supporting high valued fish and wildlife habitat and multiple resource uses such as mariculture, forestry, pleasure boating, kayaking, fishing and residential / commercial development.
Due to the relatively pristine nature of the Inlet, there are currently no shellfish closures in the mariculture growing areas except for a small area of Freke Anchorage. However, increased pollution from non point sources such as upland development, recreation and pleasure boating threaten to change the pristine waters which could eventually lead to increased shellfish harvesting closures and environmental impacts within the Inlet.
The Powell River Regional District (PRRD) and the Sliammon First Nations have come together under the Okeover Round Table to protect, maintain and improve fresh and marine water quality in the Okeover, Malaspina, Lancelot and Theodosia Inlets and upland areas. The Okeover Round Table is a forum for identifying problems and proposing solutions by providing advice to local government, provincial and federal agencies. Community groups and local residents lead the development and completion of stewardship projects.
One of these stewardship projects was water quality monitoring of marine and freshwaters in the Okeover Inlet area watershed. The results of the Okeover water quality monitoring is intended to guide future efforts to prevent contamination of Okeover Inlet area waters.
The goals of water quality monitoring in Okeover Inlet are:
- to determine the present environmental conditions in Okeover Inlet with the current levels of land / water use, utilizing marine water and sediment quality as benchmark indicators;
- to determine the quality of surface fresh water runoff from upland areas and to understand the extent of non point source pollution to marine water quality;
- to provide environmental information to the PRRD, Sliammon First Nations, Ministry of
Health Services, community groups and residents with a long-term goal of
encouraging land and water use planning and stewardship in this area; and
- to ensure water quality is protected in perpetuity through a land-based plan such as a liquid waste management plan or regional land use plan.
A preliminary summary of sampling results from Okeover Inlet monitoring is available here.
Water Quality Objectives Attainment
In addition to establishing water quality criteria at a specific site, Water Quality Objectives also recommend follow-up monitoring plans to determine if established objectives are being met and help to determine whether basin-wide water quality studies should be initiated. Data is collected, assessed and findings are released in attainment reports.
Current Water Quality Objective Attainment Monitoring projects include:
Burrard Inlet
Boundary Bay
Upper Fraser River Tributaries
Hope Slough
Salmon River |
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Automated Water Quality Monitoring
The Environmental Quality Section also undertakes automated water quality monitoring as part of a long-term trend monitoring program designed to assess impacts of non-point source pollution on aquatic environments and to identify trends in water quality (i.e. improving, unchanged, declining) at selected sites within the region. More information on the trend monitoring program is available here.
Special Studies
In addition to the Environmental Quality projects, water quality monitoring is conducted regionally by Environmental Management, Environmental Stewardship and the Conservation Officer Service. This monitoring is largely to determine compliance with Ministry regulations and guidelines. Audit monitoring, unlike ambient monitoring, is typically conducted in waste discharges themselves, or in the initial dilution zone.
Historic water quality data collected by the Regional Office ranges from 1971 to 2002, for well over one hundred stations, which include streams, rivers, lakes and marine waters is available here. Attempts are being made to update this database annually. Water resource information is also available on the ministry's Water Stewardship Division website.
The Environmental Quality section also undertakes (or commissions) special studies with regional importance. Information on special studies is available here.
Water quality monitoring reports are available here.
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