Discharge had minimal negative effect

After some wastewater leaked into the Barbara Weit River watershed in December, the provincial government took several water samples.

The results weren’t released to the media, but environmental land management manager Greg Wilson said the provincial lab tested for total suspended solids, ammonia, pH, nitrogen, phosphorus and biological oxygen demand.

Whenever there’s a discharge like the one on Dec. 26, Wilson said his department looks for several parameters, including biological oxygen demand or BOD.

“In the water in each stream there’s a small component of dissolved oxygen. So, when you have organic matter enter a stream, bacteria and other microorganisms use that dissolved oxygen to break the organic matter down. That’s a natural, ongoing process that happens all the time in a healthy ecosystem, but if you get abnormal high levels of organic matter entering a stream, the bacteria and microorganisms will use up all the dissolved oxygen to try and break it down, and when they use it all up, then it’s not available for fish or aquatic insects or other life in the stream. So, you’re going to have a negative effect.”

Some of the samples had more than 1,000 times the BOD they should have, said Wilson.

However, Wilson and his staff didn’t find any signs that there would be long-lasting effects from the discharge.

“We didn’t see any dead fish, we didn’t see anything in those rivers or streams that would alarm us. Basically, we think the material got diluted enough by the time it hit the river that it didn’t have a negative effect. Well, it had some negative effect, but it was minimal, we hope.”