Since the 1970's, pollution in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island has caused...

Since the 1970's, pollution in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver
Island has caused a ban on the shellfish harvest. But with efforts from government agencies, forest companies, conservation groups and First Nations like the Cowichan Tribes, a shellfish harvest could be a reality by 2020. “Those clams are the canary in the coal mine,” said Chief Harvey Alphonse.

“When we can eat them again, we will have come a long way toward cleaning up this magnificent watershed.” The Cowichan Valley Regional District and the Cowichan Tribes announced a two-and-a-half year, $200,000 project that will begin to identify contaminants in the Bay, and their sources, and begin to clean up the waters there and the two rivers that drain into it. Water samples taken upstream from Cowichan Bay will determine a baseline. In year one, they will focus on the lower watershed and expand from there. The Cowichan Watershed Partnership Project “is intended to assess the watershed to figure out where we need to set priorities,” said John Deniseger, head of the environmental quality section of the provincial Environment Ministry. “Water runs downhill and ultimately runs into the bay,” he said. “It’s about many small sources of contamination.” A major player in the endeavor is the Joint Utilities Board, which runs Duncan’s sewage-treatment system. The board has committed to get the wastewater treatment discharge out of the Cowichan River. Jean Crowder, MP for Nanaimo-Cowichan, said the partnership is “a really important first step.” It’s unclear the role of the federal government, she said, until new fish regulations that are part of Bill C-38, the omnibus budget legislation that included changes to the Fisheries Act, are announced. “Bill C-38 definitely is going to change the way we look at fish habitat,” she said.