The results of last year's water quality testing in the Coquitlam River show that the waterway appears to be in reasonable health.
According to a city staff report, 12 of 13 parameters sampled during the wet season and seven of 13 parameters sampled in the dry season were listed in the "good" category. The other six parameters including dissolved oxygen, temperature, turbidity, E. coli, total iron and total zinc were listed as "satisfactory."
As a result of the report, council voted in favour of a motion to reduce testing from once a year to every other year (councillors Bonita Zarrillo and Craig Hodge were opposed to the reduction in testing).
The city will maintain its yearly sampling for total suspended solids and will expand its continuous turbidity monitoring at two sites along the river for at least one year.
Turbidity was considerably higher in 2014 than in 2013 and 2012 but it is difficult to what the reasons are with such a limited sample size, according to the report.
