A south Coquitlam watershed that's ranked in "poor" health by Metro Vancouver is about to get a multi-million dollar treatment.
This week, city council approved a draft plan for the Nelson Creek watershed, a 600-acre area urbanized in the 1950s and '60s that encompasses most of the Austin Heights and Maillardville neighbourhoods.
The $8.2-million plan, which has been studied for the past year by stakeholders such as the Austin Heights BIA, Maillardville Residents' Association, Como Watershed Group and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, involves a number of fixes, including:
stabilizing stream erosion zones;
diverting headwater flows;
installing hydrodynamic separators at key outfalls;
upsizing storm collection pipes;
and implementing rainwater management guidelines.
The city's rainwater regulations, which are currently used in the Hyde, Partington and Scott Creek watersheds, encourage developers to use permeable paving, infiltration trenches and absorbent landscaping.
Speaking before city council on Monday, Dana Soong, the city's manager of utility programs, said many homes in the watershed were built right up to the setbacks of ravines and streams - a contravention of today's government rules.
As well, when the area was developed some 60 years ago, the city treated water as a waste product, Soong said.
Coun. Mae Reid said the Nelson Creek Integrated Watershed Management Plan (IWMP) is a way to repair the damage that's been done when new homes go in.
But the plan - which is now available for viewing at the Coquitlam library branches - won't be phased in for another decade, Soong said. A public open house on the plan is expected, though no date has been set.
The city is working on a number of IWMPs to improve watershed base flows and slope stability and alleviate flooding, among other things. These include: Maple Creek (along with the city of Port Coquitlam); Chines (with Port Moody and Metro Vancouver); Como Creek (an update to the stormwater management plan); and Austin/Rochester creeks (to prepare for development associated with the Evergreen Line).
Meanwhile, IWMPs have been completed for Hyde, Partington and Scott creeks.
