Water Quality Attainment Report 2018 -Bings Creek
Cowichan/Bings Watersheds Water Quality
Sampling: Summer and Fall 2018
Introduction
In 2018 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 three areas, see Figure 1;
- streams tributary to Cowichan Lake,
- stations in Cowichan Lake, and
- stations in the Cowichan River and Bings Creek.
A complete list of stations and their latitude / longitude coordinates can be seen in Table 1 This monitoring work continued a program begun in 2017 under the leadership of the Cowichan Watershed Board. The goal of this monitoring work is to provide local and provincial researchers, managers and the public with objective water quality data. This data will enable transparent discussions on the progress of management efforts and help identify new areas of research to inform the public and aid management decisions.
Sponsorship and Support
This monitoring work was possible in large part due to the generous financial support of the British Columbia Real Estate Foundation. This organisation was also the significant contributor to the monitoring work in 2017 and the author of this paper would like to thank the British
Columbia Real Estate Foundation for their continued support.
Significant logistical support in the form of equipment, facilitating sample analysis, and database organisation was provided by Deb Epps and Michelle Meier at the Nanaimo Office of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
The majority of labour to collect water quality data was conducted by a dedicated team of volunteers who provided 236 hours of work to the project, see Table 2 and 3. Volunteers were coordinated by three organisations; the Cowichan Watershed Board, The Cowichan Lake and
River Stewardship Society, and the Somenos Marsh Wildlife Society.
Professional support for survey design and data collection and data analysis was provided by the author, representing the Somenos Marsh Wildlife Society.
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