February 14: Ten days after I reported the situation. No attempt at siltation control. Where this water enters Scott Creek, there is Salmon eggs incubating in the creek right now.
February 14: slumping erosion, into remaining wetland
February 14: A pile of plant and construction debris, now fills what is left of the other wetland.
February 14: On the Left Private property. On the right a storm drain Right of Way.
Before and After
Some of the trees removed
Rough plan of the watercourses in the immediate area
Culvert that drains the wetland. Exposed for about 40 feet before it enters the CPR culvert. How did they miss this????
Wetland slowly being filled in from the left hand side.
Goodbye functioning wetland
Looking towards Coquitlam town centre, the foreground once contained a small stream, wetland, now filled in.
Remaining wetland, being filled in.
Sodium Fluoroscein dye entering Scott Creek, (a harmless dye), through an outfall at the end of, Fleming Street.
Dye testing the pond, confirmed the connection to Scott Creek
Location of the "missing" culvert.Just throwing a few crushed leaves in would have pointed it out.
Culvert under the CPR tracks. Note the scale marks from previous water flows on the walls of the culvert.
Aerial view June 1979, can still make out the railway grade where it joins the CPR mainline
Aerial view 2009 showing, what is left
Aerial view 2009
aerial view 2003I went by this wetland last week, and lo and behold, it was being filled in!. I contacted DFO, who replied that they sent a technician out and he, concurred with an earlier assumption by the Cities own biologist that it had no culvert or connection to any watercourse, how wrong they were, "blind" biologists, are among us. This wetland/ very small creek, was at one time known as Crabbe Creek, after a local family, who had a sawmill, where today's Save-on-foods is located. The remnant of it which is now being filled in without any type of environmental controls in place, lies beside the old J.A.Dewar railway tracks, later Deeks-McBride, now LaFarge Lake Park, (MS Word Document) which at one time was a gravel mining operation. One more Lost stream to add too the list. Pictures tell a story. Due diligence is apparently not part, of some folks job description. Update: Murray Manson,DFO e-mailed me telling me that he had put a stop work order on the site, in reference to the new information that I provided.
For a really good look at what it looked like around its perimeter, load Google Earth, and turn on Street View, they shot pictures all along Christmas Way, and Pheasant Street.
If it wasn't for envirnomental stewards, such as Niall Williams of Coquitlam, ecological violations would occur unoticed. As in the case of the wetland adjacent to Scott Creek, I am disturbed that people who we should trust to protect these rare unique intraurban zones, should instead endosrse its destruction. Could this be in the interest of a private financial business transaction?; Probably. When will the municipalities ever learn.
ReplyDeleteOh by the way, to the biologist who has written this area off because of the absence of ground water last August. Get real. I myself, have an extensive background in biology and chemistry, and I hardly believe that s single observation of these ground conditons which occured during record summer tempertures and absence of rainfall in the lowermainland, should quantify such decissions.
Keith Kozak
Hoy/Scott Watershed Society
i grew up along the creek at crabbe sawmill many fish spawned and lived in it at one point we drew our drinking water from there
DeleteI'm very proud of Niall Williams.
ReplyDeleteThe world, needs more people like you!!!
Thank you for your commintment and your persistence.
Patricia E. Gaspar
Hoy Scott Watershed Society
is this city land? i guess that someone should hold up their hand at the next council meeting and ask why and how this project is taking place ,and maybe hold the biologist responsible for billing the city without ever going to the site
ReplyDelete