Mitigating the effects of climate change could cost Abbotsford and Mission more than $600,000 to keep its creeks flowing and full of life.
Three scenarios explore possible the possible effect of a warming climate on the region’s waterways in a report from Amy Peters, the water conservation program coordinator for the Abbotsford/Mission Water and Sewer Services.
The most extreme scenario, would occur if the area saw five consecutive years as hot as the current record for hottest year. It is considered “extremely improbable,” and a mitigation strategy was not proposed as a result.
A second and more probable scenario would require the city to spend an additional $330,000 a year, to mitigate lower water levels, if the next five years are as warm as the warmest five-year period on record. This money would go toward a mitigation well and flow monitoring station at Fishtrap Creek.
“Fishtrap Creek is critical habitat to Nooksack dace and Salish sucker,” the report reads. Those two species are both endangered, and their protection is a legally required according to the Species at Risk Act.
A flow monitoring station is also reccomended for Downes Creek, in the second scenario.
