Salmon return to Spanish Banks Creek Restoration Project in the City of Vancouver

Streamkeepers, Citizen Science at its Best

Spanish Banks Creek is located in the most western part of the City of Vancouver. It flows through Pacific Spirit Regional Park, under Marine Drive, and into English Bay at Spanish Banks beach. The creek was salmon-bearing prior to urban development.

Salmon are able to return to Spanish Banks Creek for the first time in over fifty years thanks to a community-inspired project that brought citizens and government agencies together to restore fish access and fish habitat to the creek's lower reaches, reports Zo Ann Morten, Executive Director of the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation.

"The Federation encourages the measurement of baseline stream health through a network of qualified trainers using streamkeepers methodology. This methodology is contained in a Handbook and Modules that are government developed, scientifically sound techniques, described in plain language."

This winning combination has been successful in building community capacity across British Columbia. The results have been positive changes in government policy, regulations and attitudes and most importantly, a growing and knowledgeable stewardship community taking action in their local waterways

To Learn More: To view a short documentary about the project, click on this link: http://vimeo.com/24955762. Zo Ann Morten elaborates on the Spanish Banks Creek Restoration Project.

Tsolum River Partnership Reduces Copper Contamination and Brings Salmon Back

The Goal: A Self-Sustaining System

After a small open-pit copper mine on Mount Washington on Vancouver Island closed in the 1960s, leaching copper eliminated fisheries in the Tsolum River watershed. By 2009, remediation work had improved water quality to the point where fisheries resources were beginning to recover. In the fall of 2009, there were more pink salmon in the river than had been seen in 50 years. In May 2011, the work of the Tsolum River Partnership was recognized with a  Premier's Award for Excellence and Innovation

"The exciting thing about this is that now we can go to work and repair the ecosystems. We can actually restore fish habitat and riparian areas, build refuge habitat, stabilize banks, stabilize sub-straits, and end up with a system that's going to be self-sustaining. It will probably take us another 20 years to do that. But at least we can do that now...It's really, really exciting," reports Jack Minard, Executive Director of the Tsolum River Restoration Society.

To Learn More:

The Premier's Awards acknowledge outstanding achievements in public service. "I would like to thank each of these recipients for their leadership, dedication and incredible determination," Premier Christy Clark said in a news release.

Click on "Tsolum River restoration story is all about sharing a vision and mutual respect," observes CAVI's Eric Bonham.

Click on Restoration Vision for Tsolum River: A Self-Sustaining System

Green Communities Initiative: British Columbia leverages provincial funding to influence local government actions

 

Doing Business Differently

The January 2010 issue of Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine included an article about the policy framework put in place by the Province of British Columbia that enables local governments to commit to doing business differently.

Written by Kim Stephens, the article also drew on the perspectives of Lynn Kriwoken (BC Ministry of Environment), Glen Brown (BC Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development) and Tim Pringle (Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia).

The article states that the program goals for Living Water Smart, BC’s Water Plan and the companion Green Communities Initiative constitute a ‘call to action’ on the part of British Columbians to manage settlement change in balance with ecology.

The article describes how implementation of Living Water Smart and the Green Communities Initiative is being advanced through partnerships, in particular the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia.  

“A mandate of the Ministry is to foster partnerships, collaboration, innovation and integration through the program elements that comprise the Green Communities Initiative. The goal is to build capacity that will result in sustainable, healthy and vibrant communities,” states Glen Brown, Executive Director of the Local Government Infrastructure & Finance Division. 

“The reality of an increasing local government infrastructure deficit means that there will be even stiffer competition for available funding. As a result, there is a greater incentive for local governments to demonstrate how their innovation and integration will be effective in meeting the goals of both the Green Communities Initiative and Living Water Smart.” 

To download a copy of the article, click on Pathway to Urban Water Sustainability in British Columbia.

"Green infrastructure should serve as the foundation for effective stormwater management," says Water Environment Foundation

21^st Century Stormwater Management

In May 2011, the US-based Water Environment Federation (WEF) released its Position Statement on 21st Century Stormwater Management. WEF made eight recommendations, and highlighted the importance of green infrastructure.

WEF believes that the United States Environmental Protection Agency should update regulations related to the Clean Water Act that ovcersee stormwater-generated flows. Extracts from the Position Statement pertaining to green infrastructure are presented below.

Support Green Infrastructure

"WEF believes that the use of green infrastructure distributed across the landscape in conjunction with traditional downstream solutions should serve as the foundation for effective stormwater management."

"WEF supports effective integration of green infrastructure as an emerging method for the management of wet weather flows, and believes that this tool can best be implemented through integrated stormwater controls, such as bioretention facilities, swales, and infiltration."

"By capturing and treating stormwater before it enters major drainage and collection systems, these practices will encourage groundwater recharge and water quality improvement through a variety of physical, chemical, and biological filtration processes."

Climate Change Adaptation: WEF recognizes that green infrastructure "provides the resiliency required to adapt to changing climatic conditions".

"The way we see the world is shaped by our vocabulary," observes Metro Vancouver's Robert Hicks

 

Total Water Management Introduced

"The concept of 'total water management' is the new buzz phrase in Europe.  LID is so passé," comments Robert Hicks, a Senior Engineer with the Metro Vancouver regional government in British Columbia. "When you think about it, the way we see the world is shaped by our vocabulary."

Total Water Management: Practices for a Sustainable Future, by Neil S. Grigg, explains what Total Water Management means in unambiguous language. It expands, explains, and illustrates core concepts and how to apply them. It is about the balance between our responsibilities to provide safe and reliable water services and to protect the environment.

How Relationships and Worth are Perceived: "Other languages like French and German often use more exact terms than English for 'stormwater' and 'wastewater', and this changes how relationships and worth are perceived - for example, eaux pluvials, eaux usées transliterate as rainwater and used water; and Regenwasser and Abwasser transliterate as rainwater and 'out' water," explains Robert Hicks.

"Also, in English we use wastewater where waste has a negative value, and stormwater where storm disregards all the other precipitation events at work.  While these all share the common thread of water, wasser or eau, 'total water management' may be more easy rationalized in some other languages as water is either rainwater, drinking water or used water. Nothing is waste in the water cycle and the word waste does not appear in the terminology," concludes Robert Hicks.

To Learn More: To read the complete story that is posted on the Water Bucket website, click here.

Philadelphia Gains Approval of Landmark Green Infrastructure Plan, a Model for Smart Water Practices Nationwide

Green City, Blue Waters

"Philadelphia is known nationwide for its cheese steaks and the Liberty Bell – but it’s now one step closer to adding “greenest city in America” to that list," writes Larry Levine in a column published on the Natural Resources Defense Council Staff Blog.

On June 1, the city secured its place as a national leader when the Philadelphia Water Department and state environmental officials signed an ambitious agreement to officially launch Green City, Blue Waters. The agreement commits the city to deploy, over the next 25 years, the most comprehensive network of green infrastructure found in any U.S. city. 

"Philadelphia is about to get, quite literally, a lot greener – and, as a result, its water a lot cleaner," observes Larry Levine, a senior water attorney in NRDC's water program. He focuses on promoting the use of "green infrastructure" as a sustainable solution to polluted urban runoff and raw sewage overflows.

To Learn More: To read the complete article by Larry Levine, click on Philadelphia Gains Approval of Landmark Green Infrastructure Plan, a Model for Smart Water Practices Nationwide

To read more about Philadelphia's bold plan for green infrastructure, click on these links to access stories previously published on Water Bucket :

• Clean Water....Green City: Blending the interests of land and water in Philadelphia 
• Philadelphia's bold plan for rainwater/stormwater management envisions "giant sponge" 
• Philadelphia plans to invest $1.6 billion to turn a third of city green in next 20 years

Philadelphia has produced a video that explains how this green vision will be accomplished over time. Click on Green City, Blue Waters from the GreenTreks Network. And click here to access the homepage for the Philadelphia Water Department's Office of Watersheds.

2011 Comox Valley Seminar Series is Springboard to Vancouver Island Economic Summit in October

Imagine…Vancouver Island….One community!

At the 2011 State of the Island Economic Summit, Convening for Action on Vancouver Island – CAVI  and the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance (VIEA) are holding a pre-Summit session that is being described as a “Forum within the Summit”.

The Forum program will be built around the “infrastructure liability” theme, and will showcase the Comox Valley experience in striving for Sustainable Service Delivery. The Comox Valley regional team approach is relevant to all local governments, and is replicable. The Comox Valley approach is built around an annual seminar series. These provide a neutral forum for sharing, exploring and learning in a way that no other forum currently provides.

“CAVI participation at the 2010 VIEA Summit was both timely and rewarding in that a promising partnership was formed with VIEA. This partnership provides an opportunity to develop an integrated approach to sustainability on Vancouver Island based upon a balanced understanding of the relationship between the economy and the environment,” reports Eric Bonham, a founding member of the CAVI Leadership Team. 

In November 2010, the VIEA Board adopted a 3-Year Plan which identified collaboration with CAVI as a high priority for 2011. This collaboration is now manifesting itself through the work of VIEA’s Sustainability Committee which includes CAVI representatives.

To Learn More: Click on 2011Comox Valley Seminar Series is a Springboard to Vancouver Island EconomicSummit to download a report-style PDF document version of the complete story posted on the Water Bucket website.

For information about the Summit, click here.