Cleaning Up British Columbia’s Coastal Waters

Nowhere in the lower mainland is our stormwater treated. The heavy winter rain that falls here in southwestern BC, Canada is collected in our storm sewer network and flushed into local stream systems that empty into the ocean. Water that does filter through the ground and into our depleting aquifer is contaminated with toxins and heavy metals.

In other words, our coast has been closed to shellfish harvesting since the 1960s; eating the shellfish here can kill you. Occasionally, the contamination levels rise so high it is unsafe to even swim along some of our favourite beaches. The ban on shell-fishing in our local waters wiped out half the commercial shellfish industry at the time.

Why is this okay with us?

My heart breaks. We have an ecosystem that is so rich in resources that no one should ever have to go hungry or thirsty. I remember digging for clams with my parents as a very young child, chasing them as they burrowed into the sand and getting squirted at for my trouble. My sister ate raw seaweed like crackers. I even remember my mom extracting the salt from ocean water.

For some communities, the pollutants along our coast and the loss of edible shellfish violate the basic human right to food security. The Semiahmoo first nations community has been decimated over the last fifty years as water pollutants have destroyed their traditional food sources. Loss of their traditional food source and an inability to access clean water has driven many residents from the land they’ve called home for thousands of years.

Happily, progress has now been made regarding access to clean water for the Semiahmoo people. Not because there is less pollution, but because the community has finally been able to connect to a municipal water source for clean drinking water.

But the poisoned water of the ocean remains.

Water, clean or poisoned, connects us all and has consequences far beyond a polluted shoreline. Consider the eelgrass colonies of the Georgia Straight. These plant colonies are our ‘ocean meadows.’ These meadows capture and store carbon dioxide from the air five times faster than trees do.

Eelgrass colonies are a keystone of our local ocean ecology. Producing food, shelter, and oxygen, eelgrass colonies also filter the water and protect our shoreline from erosion. Over 80% of what’s left of our commercial shellfish and fishing industry depends on these habitats. Untreated agricultural runoff and road pollutants (think chemicals and bits of rubber from tires) into our streams destroys our ocean meadows, and with it, BC’s commercial fishing industry.

Loss of ocean meadows, ravaged and polluted river systems, and toxic food sources have decimated the Chinook salmon population, which in turn endangers grey whales, harbor seals and our unique and globally revered orca population. In other words, polluted runoff from growing urbanization and the Fraser Valley’s agricultural industry is starving our beloved west-coast mascot.

Can you imagine if an industrial accident, say an oil spill, were to happen and cause even a fraction of the damage to our ocean waters that we have done by dumping unfiltered pollutants into our water? But because the damage to our ecosystem has occurred over decades, the average person is only peripherally aware of the problem and is unsure how to act.

So what will we tell our children when there are no more orcas left? There will be pretty stories, like the memories I hold of digging clams. But even those will fade.

Unless we change.

Now, I am not advocating for industrial filtration systems to treat our stormwater. The magnitude and cost of human-made filtration for all our polluted runoff makes this concept almost impossible. Nor am I demanding that we halt development. I see housing as much of a fundamental human right as food and water security.

Instead, development and redevelopment is an opportunity to do things better: a chance for us to build our communities in a way that removes pollutants at the source and returns water management to natural filtration and dispersion systems.

An immediate benefit of environmentally aware water management for inland dwellers is flood management. Another is the replenishment of our underground water resources. By converting municipal water management from storm drains to rain gardens, inland municipalities can build a vibrant, climate-resilient community to last for generations.

We need to let our city councils know that it’s time to give environmental experts a seat at the table before a municipality decides to take action on land conversion. Right now, overworked and poorly funded environmental groups race to catch up, fighting to undo the plans for destructive development proposals only if they happen to hear of them in time. This approach creates conflict.

I propose that any development in the Fraser Valley Watershed should be subject to environmental review from the beginning. Giving environmental experts a seat at the table, with their words considered to bear just as much weight as a developer’s deep pockets, can allow a project to move forward in a way that mediates harm rather than causing it.

If you agree, please let your favourite city counsellor know. Write them a letter and tell them about this article, or feel free to quote me. The technology and resources are available to build better cities: yet political will and expert environmental guidance remain in short supply.

The dream of clean waters and a vibrant fishing and shell fishing culture is more than just a pipe dream: it IS possible. Since the early 2000s, Washington state has dramatically increased its shellfish production and scoured its shoreline clean. With continuing research review of the ecological and economic impacts and the remediation of coastal waters, Washington State continues to curate its waters, injecting over $270 million a year into the region’s economy through recreational and industrial aquaculture.

We share the same coastline; the opportunity for massive returns is ours as well.

Change must happen at all levels of government. I’ve spoken about municipal change, but the Federal and Provincial coordination, attention, and funding are required to help groups like the Shared Water Alliance monitor water quality and contamination sources. Once significant pollution sources are identified, water conservation groups need the power to implement strategies to address and remedy the source of toxic pollutants.

For the average person, this means contacting your local MLA and MP and letting them know you’d like to stop toxic sludge from being dumped into the ocean. Tell your representative that you’d like to see our coastline cleaned up to the point where the water can support life again!

Refer them back to this article if you’d like.

Also, feel free to check out BC’s newly re-formed Shared Waters Alliance, a co-operative group of interested government, private and indigenous groups and ask how you can help! Funding and leadership for this initiative are currently supplied by:

The Sitka Foundation
A Rocha Canada
Semiahmoo First Nation
Friends of Semiahmoo Bay Society
City of Surrey

Any of these organizations would be thrilled to hear from you and can give you further information on just how you can help transform our coastline back to the rich and thriving ecosystem it once was.

References:

David Riley (director of the Little Campbell Watershed Society) in discussion with author, February 2021

Christy Juteau (National Conservation Science Director, A Rocha Canada) in discussion with author, January 2021

Ryan, Denise. “Clean water finally brings hope of renewal to Semiahmoo reserve.” vancouversun.com. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/semiahmoo-water-hooked-up (accessed Jan. 30 2021)

Juteau, Christy “Shared Waters: restoring shellfish harvest in the trans-boundary watershed of Boundary Bay. Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.” cedar.wwu.edu. https://cedar.wwu.edu/ssec/2018ssec/allsessions/132/ (accessed Feb. 2021)

Wright, Nikki “Eelgrass Eelgrass Conservation Conservation for the B.C. Coast: A Discussion Discussion Paper.” seagrassconservation.org. http://seagrassconservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/discussionpaper.pdf (accessed Feb. 2021)

Efford, Leah “Biodiversity in Greater Vancouver.” www.sccp.ca. http://www.sccp.ca/sites/default/files/species-habitat/documents/%239-%20Estuary%20Ecosystems.pdf (accessed Feb. 2021)

“Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” www.un.org. https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ (accessed Feb. 2021)

Stroomer, Chad and Wilson, Miriam. “British Columbia’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector, 2012 Edition.” www2.gov.bc.ca. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/data/statistics/business-industry-trade/industry/fisheries-aquaculture/bc_fisheries_aquaculture_2012.pdf (accessed Feb. 2021)

Reum, Jonathan C.P., Neil S. Banas, Wei Cheng, Penelope Dalton, Kevin Decker, Marcus Duke, Dara Farrell et al. “Shellfish Aquaculture in Washington State: Final Report to the Washington State Legislature.” wsg.washington.edu. https://wsg.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Shellfish-Aquaculture-Washington-State.pdf (accessed on Feb. 2021)

Christensen, Matt. “Shared Waters: About.” www.sites.google.com/view/shared-waters. https://www.sites.google.com/view/shared-waters/home (accessed on Feb. 2021)

Pacific Shellfish Institute. “Sea Grant Aquaculture Extension 2015: Implementing the Washington Shellfish Initiative.” www.pacshell.org. http://www.pacshell.org/wsgext.asp (accessed on Feb. 2021)

Images:

“West Coast Hiker” Photo by Maxime Doré on Unsplash

“Shelling” Photo by Monica Gozalo on Unsplash

“Sea grass” Photo by The Tampa Bay Estuary Program on Unsplash

“Orcas in Juan de Fuca, BC, Canada” Photo by Dick Martin on Unsplash

Rain_Garden_2016–05–04_034.jpg (3264×2448) (wikimedia.org)

“Sunset Clam Digging” Photo by Esther Ann on Unsplash

“Clam Shell_2” Photo by Eiliv-Sonas Aceron on Unsplash