Remediation work on sensitive wetlands south of Jubilee Parkway is expected to be complete next year – nearly four years after their destruction first came to light.
The owner/developer of the area in question, Parkway Properties, has taken full responsibility for disturbing more than 2.42 hectares of wetland during development of the subdivision on the north side of Jubilee Parkway between 2006 and 2012.
As part of a remediation plan agreed upon by both the city and Parkway, the developer this summer undertook extensive removal of invasive plants on the property, including Scotch broom and blackberry. Coarse woody debris will be stockpiled at the site for use in next year’s continuing restoration work, according to city staff.
Ron Neufeld, the city’s general manager of operations and deputy city manager, said the city recently issued a development permit so that once weather permits, Parkway can carry out the work in a restoration plan that includes a range of water depths and a mix of wetland forest, as well as shrub and aquatic vegetation habitat to help bring back biodiversity to the damaged wetland.
Neufeld said the design also involves a newly constructed water control/diversion structure that is aimed at slowly and temporarily draining the wetland to the ditch along Jubilee Parkway. He added that the process is expected to take three weeks and during that time, biologists will salvage and re-locate amphibians to a few deep pools that will remain during the wetland re-construction. Machines will excavate and rebuild the wetland, replacing stockpiled peat, removing infill and creating a replacement wetland. After the restoration is complete, the control structure is expected to help maintain wetland water levels.
“We had hoped to see the wetland dug out and rebuilt before this year’s rainy season but timing didn’t work out with the required stakeholder consultation for Provincial approval,” Neufeld said. “In the meantime, all permitting agencies have reviewed and approved the detailed restoration plan prepared by qualified environmental professionals.”
The initial work was completed under a Provincial notification subject to the Water Sustainability Act. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure permitting was also required to connect the piping to the ditch and city permitting was necessary to cross a water main that supplies drinking water to Area D of the Strathcona Regional District.
The work to restore the wetland follows a directive from city council last December for a combination of wetland restoration and compensation land at a 2:1 replacement ratio for the northern portion of the infilled fen wetland south of Jubilee Parkway.
The plan includes the creation of 1.16 ha of non-fen wetland in roughly the same location as the original 2.42 ha of wetland that was ruined by Parkway when it was infilled with mineral soils. Parkway maintains that it believed the fen was another pocket of glacial till that wouldn’t drain, similar to what the developers had encountered previously in the same general area.
Dan Samson, president of Parkway, has said on numerous occasions that Parkway takes full responsibility and has committed to restoring 0.52 ha of the in-filled wetland in order to comply with the Provincial Water Act, as well as retain 0.54 ha of two existing endangered trembling aspen forested wetlands on the perimeter of the former fen wetland.
To make up for the area that the city accepts cannot be restored to fen land, Parkway is setting aside 2.1 ha of forest land as compensation for the northern portion of the infilled fen wetland south of Jubilee Parkway. That forest land is located on the west side of the property bordering the Woods Creek wetland and will be protected by a covenant.
Samson told the Mirror previously that Parkway is satisfied with the solution both parties came to.
“We are satisfied with the revised Remedial Action Requirement solution that has been recommended to, and accepted by council,” Samson said. “The company has been trying to resolve the issue ever since (the issue first came to light via a citizen’s complaint).
“Nearly three years later, and after an investment of approximately $200,000 in reports and studies, the city and ourselves have agreed to complete a plan.”
Neufeld said that as remediation work goes along, there will be ongoing monitoring and measurement of key ecological attributes will use scientific methods and best practices.
Anyone with questions about the restoration plan can contact Terri Martin, the city’s environmental specialist, at 250-286-5711 or terri.martin@campbellriver.ca
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