It seems we can never go more than a few months without bringing you a story about chemicals spilling into one of our local creeks, killing the fish and spoiling their habitat. It’s beyond maddening.
And those are just the ones that we hear about. Unfortunately, the nature of spills in creeks is they are fleeting. As long as the water is flowing, the evidence will be washed away.
If you see a pollutant in a stream, call your municipality immediately to report it. Our councils should arrange for signs to be posted at our sadly frequent hotspots for spills.
Too often, these spills are traced back to work being done around the house, like painting, concrete and power washing. Anytime we – or someone we’ve hired – is doing work with chemicals, we must take the utmost responsibility to ensure that not a single drop ends up in the stormwater system, which leads directly to fish bearing waters.
Our Streamkeepers groups and the Seymour Salmonid Society do incredibly heavy lifting, literally and figuratively, to restore and maintain local fish habitat and give our fish their very best shot at survival. But all of those benefits can be undone quickly if someone negligently dumps toxins into the gills of fish.
Don’t be afraid to keep an eye on your neighbours and their property works as well.
With a warming climate, ocean acidification, creekbeds drying up, pollution and parasites, the West Coast’s aquatic species are beset on all side.
And they need every ally on dry land that they can get.
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