The The Campbell Campbell

River River WUP WUP

ProcessProcess

Roderick Haig-BrownRoderick Haig-Brown“What we need and must somehow find

in this last part of the twentieth century is a land and water ethic perhaps better, an ethic of land, air and water. It is perfectly possible to have settlement, industrial development and reasonable exploitation of primary resources without condemning our children to generations of poverty and deprivation because we have ruined the land that should support them”

Nominated in 2005 as one of the all time "Greatest Canadians", Roderick Haig-Brown was a pioneer in the environmentalist movement.

Campbell River Tyee ClubCampbell River Tyee Club

In the summer of 1924, a few fishermen gathered in the Willows Hotel in Campbell River and decided to organize a club somewhat along the lines of the famous Tuna Club of Catalina Island. The purpose was to standardize the sport of salmon fishing in B.C

Instream Flow Presumptive Standards (%mad)

(zero deviations from standards suggest no HADD will occur)

Biological or Physical Requirement Percent Mean Duration per

  Annual Discharge Annum

Short-term Biological Maintenance 10 days

Juvenile summer-fall rearing 20 months

Over-wintering 20 months

Riffle Optimization 20 months

Incubation 20 months

Kokanee spawning 20 days-weeks

Smolt Emigration 50 weeks

Gamefish Passage at Partial Barriers 50 to 100 days

Large Fish Spawning/Migration 148*MAD^-0.36 days-weeks

Off-channel Connectivity/Riparian Function 100 weeks

Channel Geomorphology/Sediment Flushing >400 1 to 2 days

Campbell River Weighted Usable Area Curves: Reach 2 Rearers

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240

Flow (cms)

WU

A (

sq

m)

CH Fry CO Fry

ST Fry ST Parr

Lower Campbell RiverLower Campbell River

• The loss of gravel recruitment and in-river spawning habitat in Campbell River is directly linked to construction and operation of John Hart Dam.

• After 50 years of operation, additional spawning habitat was lost and the current Chinook spawning capacity is now only 33% of the historic or target capacity of 4000 adults.

Instream Gravel Placement

Salmon River Diversion

Upper Quinsam RiverUpper Quinsam River

Quinsam River Cascades

Heber River DiversionHeber River Diversion

Campbell R Elk Falls CanyonCampbell R Elk Falls Canyon

Campbell R Elk Falls Canyon

Post WUP Agreement -what workedPost WUP Agreement -what worked

• Improved working relationships between B.C. Hydro, DFO, MOE, Recreation Groups and Community Interest Groups (increased level of trust)

• The Campbell WUP is a living adaptive process that is re-examined every 5 years

• Interest groups walked away feeling that their situation had improved

• Minimizing the PM s helped simplify analyses and clarify keys concerns

Post WUP Agreement-want didn’t workPost WUP Agreement-want didn’t work

• WUP was very time consuming for technical staff

• Operational issues are still a problem e.g. outages,

• Overwhelmed by the number of PM interaction between plants, reservoirs and rivers

• In contrast to the Campbell, the Cheakamus WUP spent more time with data collection but did not get a resolution likely because there was a poor understanding of the PMs

• Didn’t ensure what is proposed and agreed on can be accomplished by the equipment and operators

WUP Monitoring IssuesWUP Monitoring Issues

• Poor Baseline- ability to measure productivity vs. flow (often require 10+ years of data to establish baseline)

• Often a difficulty even measuring a 25% change in fish productivity

• Flow studies may be limited to quantifying production under a single flow regime