Water Quality Attainment Report 2017 -Cowichan Koksilah

Cowichan Koksilah WQ 2017-2018 Dave Preikshot

Introduction
In 2017 the author was contracted by the Cowichan Watershed Board to design, implement and report on water quality sampling in the Cowichan and Koksilah watersheds in a manner that would complement and continue extant sampling by the provincial Ministry of Environment (Smorong. 2015 and Obee 2011). Water quality sampling was carried out in four areas:
- streams tributary to Cowichan Bay,
- the Koksilah watershed,
- the Somenos and Quamichan watersheds and lower Cowichan River, and
- marine waters in, and adjacent to, Cowichan Bay.
This sampling program adhered to the provincial ‘5 in 30’ sampling standard, that is, at each site samples are taken once a week for five samples over a 30 day span (Epps and Phippen 2011)

This project would not have been possible without funding from the Real Estate Estate
foundation of BC. Several organisations lent the support of both their personnel and equipment to help in data collection. The groups were: the Cowichan Watershed Board (Tom Rutherford and Jill Thompson), the Cowichan Land Trust (Kai Reitzel, Meg Loop and Cameron Hepp), the Somenos Marsh Wildlife Society (Dave Preikshot, Elizabeth Aitken, Jared Bates, George Anderson, Chris Jones, and Barry Hetschko), Cowichan Tribes (Tim Kulchyski), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Willi Jansen), and the BC Ministry of Environment

Download the report here.