Monitoring project results provide details about health of Swift Current Creek
The findings of a monitoring project show no significant changes to the water quality and stream health of the Swift Current between 2007 and 2017.
The Swift Current Creek Watershed Stewards (SCCWS) has completed the final report for the 2017 Swift Current Creek monitoring project, which collected data about water quality, riparian health, fish population and health, and aquatic macroinvertebrates at different sites along the creek.
“It's staying the same,” SCCWS Executive Director Kevin Steinley said about the health of the creek. “From looking at the results as you move along the creek from site to site and throughout the year, we see the same trends in 2017 that we saw in 2007 in terms of how water quality changes from one site to the next and as we get later into the year.”
The monitoring of water quality and riparian health is one of the key goals of the SCCWS. The organization previously carried out a monitoring project from 2004 to 2007. A smaller monitoring project in 2013 focused on the impact of the Swift Current waste water treatment plant on downstream water quality.
There has been many changes in land use and management in the watershed since 2007, and the SCCWS therefore felt it was necessary to conduct another monitoring project based on the format of the 2004-2007 study.
“It was a good opportunity to set a base for the future,” he said about the 2017 study. “It allowed us to get some information and to use it to do more projects along the creek and figure out why we got the results we did.”
The 2017 project used seven monitoring locations from previous projects and added three new site locations within the city. Water sampling took place over a five-month period from May to September.
The three new sites in the city were only used for water quality testing. The riparian health assessment was done at the seven other sites, while the fish and macroinvertebrate surveys were done at five sites.
According to Steinley the water quality results did not raise any red flags, even at the most impaired site.
“The most apparent observation in 2017 was increased levels of total dissolved solids,” he said.
“The total dissolved solids is a measure of the salts and minerals in the water and from what we've been able to determine, the increased runoff in 2016 caused increased amounts of these salts and minerals to end up in the creek and as 2017 got hotter and drier, evaporation lowered the levels in the creek and raised the levels of these concentrations.”
The three new sites in the city at Riverside Park, Riverdene Park and at the Trans-Canada Highway near the Ponderosa trailer court were specifically added to obtain information about any impact from the City of Swift Current's water treatment plant and waste water treatment plant on water quality.
“The sites within the city and near the City facilities in our opinion showed that there was no impact on water quality from the operations of the facilities, and the Swift Current Creek Watershed Stewards commends the operators of these facilities in the city for their commitment to water quality,” he said.
The water quality results for some elements downstream of the waste water treatment plant were higher than the preferred levels, but the overall water quality was still good.
“A few of the chemicals like aluminum, which is used in the process, shows up in higher concentrations than it does upstream of the waste water treatment plant and a little bit of phosphorus, because the treatment can't quite get it all out,” he said. “We did actually find that our fish sampling and the macroinvertebrate sampling results were better downstream of the waste water treatment plant than upstream. So it's definitely doing its job and it is not having a huge impact downstream of the city, which is one of the big reasons for having this plant, to really mitigate issues downstream.”
The results of the riparian health assessment in 2017 were similar to the findings of the 2007 report. The riparian area at only one of the seven monitoring sites was rated as unhealthy in 2017 due to a low diversity of species. The riparian areas at the other monitoring sites were healthy with varying degrees of problems that can be improved. In some cases there are bank erosion problems, but a dominant issue is the presence of invasive species that reduces species diversity in the riparian areas.
The fish sampling results indicated that fish populations were healthy and many young of year or newly hatched fish were present.
“The creek contains a significant diversity of fish species, including those important to recreational fishing in the watershed, and it indicates that the creek maintains a healthy ecosystem for aquatic life,” he said.
Fieldworkers caught a Prussian carp, an invasive fish species, during the fish survey. This fish can clone itself and it can therefore multiply rapidly. It was caught north of Swift Current and it probably swam upstream from the South Saskatchewan River for about 40 miles. For Steinley this is an important reminder of the need to be vigilant against invasive species.
“It doesn't matter if it is invasive fish species or invasive mussels, we need to be really cognizant of what we're bringing in,” he said. “The fact is these species have no natural predators and become adapted to our conditions and are well suited to multiply rapidly. ... They can take over before any action is there. So people need to be vigilant if they see something that they don't think should be there and to let people know and then a timely response can be taken to eradicate these species.”
The survey of macroinvertebrates, which are a good indicator of water quality, indicated that these populations were stressed downstream of the Duncairn Dam due to the impact of more turbid water below the reservoir. This is a concern, but it is outweighed by the positive benefits of the dam on water management within the watershed and the area downstream of the dam also provides a source of food for other aquatic species, which increases diversity and fish populations.
“Overall, the health of the creek is good, but there's still room for improvement, as the trend observed in 2017 mirrored those that we've seen in 2007,” he said.
The SCCWS aims to promote watershed stewardship through education and awareness, and he feels the awareness about the importance of a healthy creek, both with regard to water quality and the ecosystem, has increased during the past 10 years.
“I hope that our group had a large part in promoting that awareness,” he said. “I think people are more and more understanding where their water is coming from and the need to protect it and to ensure that water quality is there.”
The results from the 2017 monitoring project will assist the SCCWS to identify the need for future projects to develop a better understanding of different issues that can contribute to watershed health problems.
“We've used some of the information to leverage another study that we're doing this year on a stretch of the creek north of Swift Current to north of Waldeck, just to do a little bit more in-depth on water quality up there to try and figure out some of the stressors in that area,” he said. “We've been contacted by researchers at the U of S to do some work on water quality, specifically on phosphorus within the creek. We now have numbers to say, as we're looking at projects, this is where we're at with this. A lot of projects are looking for measurable results. It's just not good enough to say we're improving water quality.”
The goal of the SCCWS is to conduct this type of monitoring project more frequently every five years to gather data about the health of the watershed, but that will depend on the availability of resources.
“I think now, having the experience and knowing what the time commitments and monetary commitments are, we can start planning for it, if we're looking at 2022,” he said. “We can start planning for it in 2020 and setting aside money and budgeting time and looking for if we need staff. I think it's attainable and we just need to take a longrange look at it.”
The SCCWS will soon be posting the full report of the 2017 Swift Current Creek monitoring project on their website at www.sccws.com