For the Bulletin
From 2007 to 2018 Columbia Basin Trust provided approximately $650,000 in funding for the CBWQ. This unique project supported twelve community watershed groups to monitor their water. All groups received Environment Canada training in the Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network protocol, which is used across Canada by government agencies and consultants.
“The project data is available at cbwq.ca and includes water chemistry, velocity, flow, temperature, as well as interpretive reports created by water professionals and Environment Canada Analytical Reports”, said Laura Duncan, Project Coordinator.
Laura continued, “Analytical reports are created by Environment Canada by comparing quality and quantity of benthic macro invertebrate communities in the local stream with populations in similar streams in pristine condition. This is called reference condition. The amount the sample stream differs from the reference condition is a measure of water quality. For a more detailed explanation, go to the Environment Canada website at: https://ec.gc.ca/rcba%2DCABIN/ and click on aquatic biomonitoring program.”
Check out the project website at cbwq.ca to see who the partner groups are and what their data looks like.
“Generally it is the large river systems that get all the monitoring attention”, said Jim Duncan, project administrator. “Data from small streams compliments the river data and is extremely valuable because water quality indicators show up much earlier in small streams. This is extremely important given pending impacts of climate change.”
