By JOHN MILLSON
On June 20, Salt Spring Island had a visit from Raincoast Foundation, with a public talk by renowned expert Peter Ross and a pilot round of freshwater sampling for a possible future Fulford Creek watershed Healthy Waters project.
The Salt Spring Island Water Preservation Society Freshwater Catalogue volunteers and Transition Salt Spring Marine group were amongst the first to field test “Tracker,” a new mobile water pollution Raincoast field lab. This sampling work and “instant” lab analysis results provided while in the field on the same day are very likely a first for freshwater field science on Salt Spring Island! When fully equipped, the Raincoast Tracker field lab will be able to process multiple freshwater quality components on site, supporting a rapid assessment of a watershed’s health and a comparison with the health of other key B.C. watersheds.
With Raincoast’s support, our principal Salt Spring Island watershed and the creek systems associated with Fulford Creek can be a part of a significant Raincoast Healthy Waters program, investigating visible and invisible pollutant identification in a key island watershed — an exciting new project. This project would build on our recent Fulford Harbour collaboration and reporting, working with the Raincoast Foundation and Gulf Islands National Park.
The really good news is we have an existing basic understanding of the watershed (key field sites and natural systems variability), and a good ongoing collaboration with our Raincoast colleagues. A next step into a Raincoast-supported island Healthy Waters program will be easy, funding permitting.
At this point, a Salt Spring Island Healthy Waters initiative is a “potential” project only, as some quite significant funding (about $45,000) is needed for successful execution. A key part of any possible Salt Spring Island Healthy Waters field program will be field work and sampling with Tracker to determine basic freshwater quality parameters while in the field, and relatively high-end, lab-based analysis to allow us to determine the extent of so-called invisible pollutants entering our watershed and ecosystems. The invisibles are chemicals and compounds that should not be present in a natural system and which are natural system disrupters for all life. Levels of invisibles are by their very nature unknown, and we have a real chance to lift the invisibility cloak for one of our key island watersheds. Who knows what we might find, but it is a nothing-ventured, nothing-gained story.
To undertake this project, about $45,000 is needed for some of the lab work, which involves sampling from watershed source areas, creek systems, faucets, possible contaminated inflow sites, including roads and discharges into the marine realm.
If you are interested in helping to fund a Fulford Creek watershed Healthy Waters project, please drop a line to me at john@ssiwaterpreservationsociety.ca.
The writer is a Salt Spring Island Water Preservation Society board member, geologist and environmentalist.