A group of Port Coquitlam streamkeepers are raising the alarm about a plan to move a large portion of a Maple Creek tributary to make way for a massive house.
Maple Creek Streamkeepers say the plan to move 55 m of a Maple Creek side channel 5 m northwest of its existing path will undo 20 years of hard work in improving habitat and enhancing coho salmon and cutthroat trout in the area.
"When you move a stream you never get back the productivity of the stream," said Sandy Budd, the group's president, who fears the approval of a watercourse development permit to move the creek running behind an existing house at 2545 Kitchener Ave. will unleash a flood of similar requests.
The proposal by property owner Yang de Yang, a retired businessman from China, has received approval by Fisheries and Oceans Canada after consultation with the Kwikwetlem First Nation. And Yang's daughter, who plans to live in the proposed 10,000-sq. ft. house with her extended family, said work will be done to save fish and improve habitat as part of the creek relocation.
"My father… he wants to build a kind of dream home for us," Amelia Yang told The Tri-City News. "That's why we would like to take time and spend money to relocate the creek.
"We have put a lot of effort [into it]," she said. "We hired professionals to see how we can minimize the effect on the environment."
But the proposal for such a large home on the narrow, tree-lined street has neighbours riled and the streamkeepers concerned.
CITY NEEDS INFO
Coun. Brad West, who chairs PoCo's Smart Growth committee, which will deal with the application this fall, said he is well aware of the proposal and neighbours' concerns.
"Just on the face of it, my interest is ensuring the preservation and enhancement of Maple Creek, and it's hard to see how a development proposal that would alter the creek would do any of that," West said.
The city will seek more information about the size of structures, among other things, and while the project is raising alarm bells, it's not unusual for the city to receive between two to three water course development permit applications in a year. All must meet city, provincial and federal regulations, a spokesperson from the planning department said.
Meanwhile, Budd says she is surprised the plan has got so far and she criticizes Fisheries and Oceans Canada for not consulting with streamkeeper groups, its community advisor or neighbours of the property.
"No residential property gets a stream moved — maybe a road, maybe a corporation," Budd said. "We already have problems with our salmon-bearing stream."
According to a document at city hall, the project has been in the works for at least two years, with CSR Environmental conducting plant and fish inventories, and proposing a plan to dig the new tributary by hand and with small excavators. Sediment controls would be in place and most of the work done during dry periods or when there is less chance of fish being affected.
Once dug, the planned new creek portion would be stabilized, gravel and rocks installed to create riffle pools, and the newly constructed stream connected to the existing channel. The older portion would be isolated and fish moved to the new creek.
CHANGES A CONCERN
Fisheries and Oceans Canada sent a list of its requirements for the project to The Tri-City News; it includes that new rearing and spawning habitat be constructed, plants replaced, mature trees protected and water flows and other factors monitored.
Moving the portion of the tributary is not expected to change water temperature or how the tributary flows into Maple Creek, according to CSR Environmental, which predicts an "overall increase in habitat quality for coho salmon (and potentially cutthroat trout)."
But Budd is worried about tree removal, and the upsetting of the creek's natural attributes with the digging of a new creek, including a reduction in food for fish, especially when the creek portion is new and plants and soil and life-giving nutrients are not yet established. She plans to bring her concerns to city council when the permit is dealt with.
"We have little enough habitat, this is one of the few remaining areas that is still a natural stream," she said.
