Water Quality
RESOURCE QUALITY SECTION
WATER MANAGEMENT BRANCH
MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND PARKS
Water quality objectives are prepared for specific bodies of fresh, estuarine and coastal marine surface waters of British Columbia as part of the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks' mandate to manage water quality. Objectives are prepared only for those waterbodies and water quality characteristics that may be affected by human activity now or in the near future.
How Objectives Are DeterminedWater quality objectives are based the BC approved and working criteria as well as national water quality guidelines. Water quality criteria and guidelines are safe limits of the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of water, biota (plant and animal life) or sediment which protect water use. Objectives are established in British Columbia for waterbodies on a site-specific basis. They are derived from the criteria by considering local water quality, water uses, water movement, waste discharges, and socio-economic factors.
Water quality objectives are set to protect the most sensitive designated water use at a specific location. A designated water use is one that is protected in a given location and is one of the following:
Each objective for a location may be based on the protection of a different water use, depending on the uses that are most sensitive to the physical, chemical or biological characteristics affecting that waterbody.
How Objectives Are UsedWater quality objectives routinely provide policy direction for resource managers for the protection of water uses in specific waterbodies. Objectives guide the evaluation of water quality, the issuing of permits, licences and orders, and the management of fisheries and the province's land base. They also provide a 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.
Water quality objectives are also a standard for assessing the Ministry's performance in protecting water uses. While water quality objectives have no legal standing and are not directly enforced, these objectives become legally enforceable when included as a requirement of a permit, licence, order, or regulation, such as the Forest Practices Code Act, Water Act regulations or Waste Management Act regulations.
Objectives and MonitoringWater quality objectives are established to protect all uses which may take place in a waterbody. Monitoring (sometimes called sampling) is undertaken to determine if all the designated water uses are being protected. The monitoring usually takes place at a critical time when a water quality specialist has determined that the water quality objectives may not be met. It is assumed that if all designated water uses are protected at the critical time, then they also will be protected at other times when the threat is less.
The monitoring usually takes place during a five week period, which allows the specialists to measure the worst, as well as the average condition in the water.
For some waterbodies, the monitoring period and frequency may vary, depending upon the nature of the problem, severity of threats to designated water uses, and the way the objectives are expressed (i.e., mean value, maximum value).
The only community in the Kitimat River drainage is the District of Kitimat. The population of 13,500 people is involved primarily with Alcan Aluminum Smelter, the Eurocan Pulp and Paper Mill and the sports fishing industry. This reach of the Kitimat River is one of the most heavily sport-fished rivers in Canada and a major spawning corridor for salmonids in British Columbia. Fisheries resources include chinook, coho, rainbow, cutthroat, steelhead and Dolly Varden.
The lower Kitimat River was chosen as a priority area for study because of the potential conflict over water use between fish and industry, both of major importance in the area. Provisional water quality objectives are proposed to permit both activities to co-exist and monitoring is recommended to ascertain whether the objectives are being met and area adequate.
Kitimat Harbor is here defined as the area north of an east-west line between the end of the Eurocan dock and the western shoreline. The Eurocan dock is the most easterly dock in Figure 2.
Most primary-contact recreation, such as swimming, occurs in the upper portion of the river in the vicinity of the water withdrawals. Secondary contact recreation, such as boating and fishing, occurs along the whole length of the river. The river is used as a migration route for fish fry, smolts and returning spawning adults, but very little actual spawning occurs in the lower reaches of the river; most spawning takes place in the headwaters and up the tributary streams.
Kitimat Arm is also used for primary and secondary-contact recreation for a food fishery (fin and shellfish), a transportation corridor and a rearing area for young fish.
Diffuse sources of effluent to Kitimat Arm are primarily refuse dumps which generate leachate. The District of Kitimat Landfill, Waste Management permit number PR 3608, is adjacent to Hirsch Creek. Eurocan Pulp and Paper Company, Waste Management permit number PR 1650, has one old and one new waste dump which leach into Beaver Creek. This creek does not flow directly into the Kitimat River, but flows throughout the estuary and into Kitimat Arm. Dissolved oxygen decreases and BOD5, dissolved and suspended solids and turbidity increase substantially at a site downstream from the waste dumps on Beaver Creek, as compared to an upstream control site. The landfill leachates, while significant to Beaver Creek, are only about 10 percent of the total Eurocan discharge.
The Alcan Aluminum Smelter, which has a production capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year, is a large complex located in the estuary. It discharges three major effluents under Waste Management permit number PE 1494 and has three landfills under Permit 2527.
Effluent Permit 1494(01) is produced by wet scrubbers, cooling water and Smelter A runoff. It contains between 60 and 97 percent of all the iron, fluoride, aluminum and cyanide discharged by the plant and overflows from settling ponds, via a ditch, to Kitimat Arm.
The second most important source of contaminants from the plant is of diffuse origin. Contaminants probably come from fugitive dust and airborne emissions, although the actual source is not documented. These contaminants enter Moore Creek, a tributary to Beaver Creek which flows through the estuary into Kitimat Arm. They constitute between 2 and 30 percent of iron, fluoride and aluminum discharged.
Effluent PE 1494(03) is the third most important source of contaminants. It comes from cooling water and Smelter B runoff and is discharged to Moore Creek. The effluent contains between 1 and 6 percent of the iron, fluoride, aluminum and cyanide discharged.
The fourth most important source of contaminants is effluent PE 1494(02), containing 0.3 to 0.9 percent of iron, fluoride and aluminum. It comes from cooling water and coke runoff and is discharged directly to Kitimat Arm via an outfall pipe.
Solid waste landfills PR 2527(01) and 2527(03) produce leachates that are diverted by ditches to the settling ponds receiving effluent PE 1494(01). Materials in landfill PR 2527(01) contribute significantly to the cyanide and fluoride in the pond overflow. The third landfill, PR 2527(02), is for inert industrial refuse. It contributes seepage to Moore Creek but does not affect water quality.
The remaining discharge, direct to Kitimat Arm via a submerged outfall, is from the Ocelot methanol plant under Waste Management permit number PE 6006. Its effluent contains elevated temperatures, suspended solids, oil and grease, COD, BOD, ammonia, nitrate, coliforms and extreme fluctuations in pH. This plant produces about 1200 t/day of methanol. A recently completed ammonia plant, also owned by Ocelot Industries, will be discharging effluent to the area via the same outfall. The effluent will contain minor amounts of similar contaminants from an operation producing 550 t/d of ammonia.
Aluminum exceeded recreation and aquatic life criteria by an order of magnitude downstream from the discharges; however, aluminum levels upstream from the discharges also frequently exceeded recreation and aquatic life criteria. While this may be a natural situation, there is a recorded aluminum dustfall in Kitimat of up to 0.45 mg/dm2/d. Background levels in the Kitimat area are recorded as 0.02 to 0.03 mg/dm2/d. The Alcan Smelter may be responsible for some of the aluminum in the lower Kitimat River due both to direct deposition and to surface runoff from the drainage basin.
The reach of the Kitimat River downstream from the waste discharges used for secondary-contact recreation and by aquatic life and wildlife. Water quality is affected primarily by the District of Kitimat sewage treatment plant (PE 256) and the Eurocan Pulp and Paper Mill (PE 292). The major contaminant measured in this reach of the river is color which exceeded recreation criteria. The other major contaminants in the effluent streams were not measured in the river, but their concentrations have been estimated from effluent loadings and river flows. These include BOD5, suspended solids, tannins and lignins and sulphide. The suspended solids may have exceeded the aquatic life criterion of no more than 10 mg/L over background outside the initial dilution zone and after complete mixing with the entire streamflow.
The sulphide criterion is for undissociated H2S. Conversion of the total sulphide level to its equivalent dissociated H2S level is dependent upon pH, temperature and conductivity. Using average values of pH, temperature and conductivity in the river at the low-flow time of year, equilibrium calculations indicate that about 50-60% if the sulphide could be in the undissociated H2S form in the lower reaches of the river below the mixing zone. Within the mixing zone of the pulp mill effluent, the undissociated H2S could be about 30-40% of the total sulphide. However, dissolved oxygen levels in the mixing zone were about 11 mg/L and about 12 mg/L in the rest of the river. Under these oxygen levels one could not expect H2S to be present in any appreciable amount since it would be quite rapidly oxidized, ultimately to sulphate. Due to the short residence time in the river there should be no dissolved oxygen depletion caused by the BOD5 loadings from the District of Kitimat and Eurocan.
Sublethal effects on aquatic life by Kraft Pulp Mill effluents are generally believed to be prevented if the concentration of effluent is kept below a certain value. This value is 0.05 of the acute toxicity of the effluent, as measured by the 96-h LC50 bioassay test. In practice it means that for a dilution of effluent in the river of 20:1 the 96-h LC50 of the effluent must be 100 percent, a situation that currently prevails.
Kitimat Arm is used for recreation and by aquatic life. The Arm is a major salmonid migration corridor and marine transportation corridor. Both fin-fish and shellfish harvesting takes place here. The contaminants discharged to Kitimat Arm are derived from several sources; minor sources are the regular use of the Arm as a marine transportation corridor, the contaminant loads in the Kitimat River and the Ocelot methanol and ammonia plant discharges under Waste Management permit number PE 6006. The major contaminant source is the Alcan Aluminum Smelter discharge under Waste Management permit PE 1491(01-04).
There has been little systematic water quality monitoring in Kitimat Arm and there is insufficient knowledge of water movement patterns in Kitimat Arm (influenced by tides and the Kitimat River) to allow calculations of contaminants at any given site from known loading rates. Fluoride levels have been measured in Kitimat Harbor to be more than ten times greater than the marine aquatic life criterion of 1.5 mg/L. Concentrations of aluminum, iron and cyanide in Kitimat Harbor would exceed marine aquatic life criteria in surface waters, based on their loadings and assuming that they are distributed much the same as fluoride.
The marine sediments in Kitimat Arm showed signs of accumulating some contaminants beyond the background values for this area. No baseline sediment samples were taken prior to the development of Kitimat, but some sites sampled appeared to be unaffected and may be considered to have background levels. Sediment levels of fluoride, aluminum, iron, lead, mercury, copper, zinc and cadmium were elevated at some site in Kitimat Arm and Kitimat Harbor and exceeded estimated background levels. The sediment levels were rarely more than twice background levels for all the elements except fluoride. Fluoride reached levels 28 times the estimated background level. Of these elements, fluoride, aluminum and iron are discharged in significant quantities from Alcan in PE 1494(01) and (02); there are few data on the other metals in Alcan discharges. The fluoride enrichment due to Alcan appears to be restricted mainly to Kitimat Harbor and Minette Bay. Additional monitoring of aluminum and cyanide (also discharged in quantity by Alcan) in the sediments is needed.
The objectives are based on ambient water quality, waste discharges, water uses and river flows. The objectives will remain provisional until receiving water monitoring programs provide adequate date and the Ministry has established approved water quality criteria for the contaminants of concern.
Water quality objectives have no legal standing and would not be directly enforced. The objectives can be considered as policy guidelines for resource managers to protect water used in the specified water bodies. They will guide the evaluation of water quality, the issuing of permits, licences and orders and the management of the fisheries and of the Province's land base. They will also provide a reference against which the state of water quality in a particular water body can be checked and serve to make decisions on whether to initiate basin-wide water quality studies.
Depending on the circumstances, water quality objectives may already be met in a water body or may describe water quality conditions which can be met in the future. To limit the scope of the work, objectives are only being prepared for waterbodies and for water quality variables which may be affected by man's activity now and in the foreseeable future.
The proposed objectives are summarized in Table 1; they do not apply to the initial dilution zone around a point of discharge, as defined in Table 1. The water uses in Kitimat Arm designated to be protected are aquatic life, wildlife, primary-contact recreation and the recreational harvesting of shellfish and fin-fish. In the Kitimat River about the District of Kitimat sewage treatment plant discharge, the designated water uses are aquatic life (spawning salmonids and their eggs, fry and smolts), wildlife, primary-contact recreation and drinking water use. In the Kitimat River, downstream from the District of Kitimat discharge, the designated water used are secondary-contact recreation, aquatic life (migrating salmonids) and wildlife.
The objective level for contaminants in the marine sediments should be such that the ability of a community to maintain itself from year to year, by natural reproduction in situ is not impaired. This level of contaminants may be lower than necessary to preserve an existing mature community. Monitoring proposed in the next section may lead to the development of specific objectives for the sediments and biota of Kitimat Arm.
Calculations indicate that the turbidity and suspended solids objectives many not be met in the river at current discharge levels of pulp mill effluent during extreme low flow events but would be met during normal flows. Brief storage of the effluent during very low flow periods for later release would allow the objectives to be met.
The location of sampling sites in the Kitimat River should be such that adequate upstream controls are available above each discharge, for each characteristic. Thus, when downstream measurements are made below any discharge, the source of any water quality characteristics can be uniquely determined. The location of sampling site in Kitimat Harbor and Kitimat Arm needs to be determined by the committee. It will likely require some on-site inspections of the areas to find suitable, representative areas and should emphasize shellfish harvesting locations.
The frequency of measurement should take into account seasonal fluctuations in river flow, tidal cycles, seasonal use patterns of the water by people, fish and other organisms and seasonal fluctuations of waste discharge quantity and concentration. Also important is the ration of total waste discharge to stream flow or the water exchange rate, particularly where the streamflow (or exchange rate) to waste discharge ration drops below 20:1.
Some characteristics of concern in the Kitimat River include conductivity, pH, temperature, turbidity, suspended solids, dissolved oxygen, hardness, ammonia, nitrate, sulphide, color, oil and grease, dissolved sodium, decal coliforms, periphyton chlorphyll-a, phosphorous and fluoride. The characteristics which should be monitored in Kitimat Arm include fecal coliforms, fluoride, total and dissolved iron, aluminum, lead, cadmium, copper, mercury, cyanide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, methanol, ammonia and oil and grease. Water sampling should be sufficient in the Kitimat River, but water, sediment and tissue samples are needed in the Kitimat Arm. AN analysis of changes, if any, in biological communities, attributable to effluent discharges, is needed in both the Kitimat River and Kitimat Arm. Eurocan is already doing this for benthic macro-invertebrates in the Kitimat River.
Monitoring to determine whether or not there is any leachate problem in Hirsch Creek from the municipal landfill (PR 3608) should occur during low flows for one season and be dropped if no effects are seen. Some markers or indicators of leachate, such as conductivity, color, phosphorous, nitrate, fecal coliforms and turbidity would be the characteristics to monitor for this trial period.
Taste testing of eulachon in the Kitimat River should take place as necessary. If tainting is detected then the specific contaminant responsible should be identified and the threshold concentration determined. Once these steps have occurred then an objective can be set which will prevent such tainting in the future.
| Water Body | Kitimat River d/s from the District of Kitimat sewage discharge (PE 256) | Kitimat Arm |
| designated water uses | aquatic life (spawning salmonid migration corridor), wildlife and secondary contact recreation | aquatic life, wildlife and primary contact recreation (recreational harvesting of shellfish and finfish) |
| fecal coliforms [recreation] |
not applicable | less than or equal to 200 MPN/100 mL as a geometric mean less than or equal to 400 MPN/100 mL as a 90th percentile |
| fecal coliforms [shellfish harvesting] |
not applicable | less than or equal to 14 MPN/100 mL as a median less than or equal to 43 MPN/100 mL as a 90th percentile |
| turbidity | 5 NTU maximum increase when the upstream value is less than or equal to 50 NTU 10% maximum increase when the upstream value exceeds 50 NTU |
|
| suspended solids | 10 mg/L maximum increase when the upstream value is less than or equal to 100 mg/L 10% maximum increase when the upstream value exceeds 100 mg/L |
|
| weak acid dissociable cyanide | not applicable | 0.001 mg/L maximum |
| fluoride | not applicable | 1.5 mg/L maximum |
| periphyton growth | up to 50 mg/m2 as a mean | not applicable |
| undissociated H2S | 0.002 mg/L maximum | not applicable |
| un-ionized ammonia-nitrogen | Ammonia guidelines | less than or equal to 1.0 mg/L mean 2.5 mg/L maximum |
| nitrite-nitrogen | less than or equal to 0.020 mg/L mean 0.060 mg/L maximum |
not applicable |
| dissolved oxygen | 7.8 mg/L minimum | not applicable |
| pH | 6.5 to 9.0 | not applicable |
| total aluminum | not applicable | 20% maximum increase |
| total cadmium | not applicable | less than or equal to 0.012 mg/L mean 0.038 mg/L maximum |
| total copper | not applicable | less than or equal to 0.002 mg/L mean 0.003 mg/L maximum or 20 % maximum increase, whichever is greater |
| total iron | not applicable | 0.3 mg/L maximum |
| total lead | not applicable | less than or equal to 0.009 mg/L mean 0.22 mg/L maximum or 20 % maximum increase, whichever is greater |
| toxicity | the percent concentration of pulp mill effluent in the river should not exceed 0.05 of the 96-h LC50 of the pulp mill effluent at any time | not applicable |
| Note: The objectives apply to discrete samples from all parts of the water bodies, except from initial dilution zones of effluents. The initial dilution zone in the Kitimat River is defined as extending up to 100 m downstream from a discharge and up to 50 % of the width of the river, from the surface to the bottom. Marine initial dilution zones are cylinders with a maximum 100 m radius around a discharge point, extending from the sediment to the water surface. Kitimat Harbour is also defined as an initial dilution zone. 1. The fecal coliform geometric mean, median and 90th percentile are calculated from a minimum of 5 samples taken in a 30-day period. The recreational objective applies only during the recreation season. The shellfish objective (14-43/100mL) applies only to areas where harvesting of shellfish occurs; in other areas of Kitimat Arm the recreational objective (200-400/100mL) will apply. 2. For turbidity, suspended solids and total aluminum, cadmium, copper and lead the increase is over levels measured at a site upstream from a discharge or series of discharges, and as close to them as possible, or in an unaffected part of the marine environment. The increase applies to downstream or affected levels. 3. For toxicity the percent concentration of pulp mill effluent in the river is calculated by dividing 100 by the effluent dilution ratio. The dilution ratio is calculated by dividing the concentration of sodium in the effluent by the increase in sodium between sites upstream and downstream from the outfall. After complete mixing the dilution ratio may also be calculated by dividing the river flow by the effluent flow. 4. The periphyton chlorophyll-a average is calculated from at least 5 samples collected at random from natural substrates, at any station, in one day. 5. The ammonia, nitrite, and total cadmium, copper and lead averages are calculated from at least 5 weekly samples taken in a 30-day period. 6. The minimum detectable concentration for cyanide is 0.005 mg/L at this time; until detection limits can be improved, measurements reported as less than 0.005 mg/L (as CN) will be acceptable. However, calculated receiving water cyanide concentrations should not exceed the objective. Measurements of strong-acid dissociable cyanide should also be made to check whether the possible photolysis of iron-cyanide complexes may produce unacceptable levels of weak-acid dissociable cyanide. |
| sites | frequency and timing | characteristics |
| Hirsch Creek u/s and d/s from PR 3608 | once during low flow for one season only, unless the results show significant leachate | fecal coliforms, specific conductivity, colour, turbidity, phosphorus and nitrate |
| Kitimat River at the u/s control site at the bridge, site 0430025 (08FF001) | continuous | flow |
| Kitimat River at the u/s control site at the bridge, site 0430025 (08FF001) | monthly | turbidity, suspended solids, temperature, pH, ammonia, dissolved oxygen, nitrite, nitrate, hardness, fecal coliforms, sulphide, colour, dissolved sodium, total and dissolved copper, aluminum, phosphorus, iron, fluoride, cadmium and lead, oil and grease, cyanide |
| Kitimat River at sites above and below discharge points | during low river flows (less than 30 m3/s), when fish or people are using the river, frequently enough to determine if the objectives are being met | fecal coliforms, turbidity, pH, suspended solids, nitrite, ammonia, dissolved oxygen, dissolved sodium |
| Kitimat Arm | at least 5 samples in a 30-day period during the shellfish harvesting period | fecal coliforms |
| Kitimat Arm | annually in the shellfish harvesting period | pH, dissolved oxygen, suspended solids, turbidity, fluoride, total and dissolved iron, copper, lead and cadmium, strong and weak acid dissociable cyanide |
| sites | frequency and timing | characteristics |
| selected shellfish harvesting sites | annually in the shellfish harvesting season | fecal coliforms, fluoride, aluminum, iron, cadmium, copper, lead and cyanide |
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