Gabriola Island Local Trust Committee regular meeting, May 1, 2025

[0:00:00] Voice 9: My name is William. My name is William Shulbaugh. We'll just wait for one or two

[0:00:06] Voice 5: minutes for people

[0:00:06] Voice 5: to join. Thanks. Hi,

[0:01:04] Voice 9: Sylvia. I just said we're just going to take a minute or two just to let

[0:01:10] Voice 9: people join. Hi, Steve. I

[0:01:26] Voice 3: think I'm still not able to be seen, but I can't see the visual mute.

[0:01:34] Voice 3: Hello? Turn

[0:01:35] Voice 13: on your camera.

[0:01:38] Voice 12: Hi, John. It's Chloe here. Yeah, so because we have both

[0:01:42] Voice 12: panelists and attendees for this Zoom, you'll only be able to see the panelists. But as you've just

[0:01:49] Voice 12: seen, if you want to speak, you did exactly right. Just put your hand up and we can allow you to

[0:01:54] Voice 12: speak.

[0:01:55] Voice 3: Thank you, Chloe.

[0:01:56] Voice 12: You're very welcome. Thanks for coming.

[0:02:05] Voice 9: Okay, thank you. Well, I think

[0:02:07] Voice 9: I think we'll get into the into the workshop or the webinar here and into our agenda.

[0:02:14] Voice 9: We have a really packed agenda. I'm really excited about it.

[0:02:18] Voice 9: So my name is William Shilba and the Senior Freshwater Specialist at the Islands Trust.

[0:02:23] Voice 9: And this is a workshop that we have titled Community-Based Freshwater Monitoring and Mapping.

[0:02:31] Voice 9: And this is part of the Islands Trust Freshwater Footprint Project, where Gabriola is our main case study and this work is being, I guess, embedded and stewarded through the local trust committee's official community plan major project.

[0:02:52] Voice 9: I would like to start by acknowledging that the Islands Trust area is situated within traditional and treaty and unceded territories of many Coast Salish First Nations.

[0:03:05] Voice 9: And the Islands Trust recognize deep and enduring relationships that the Indigenous people of these lands and waters, and we do hold a commitment in the spirit of reconciliation through respect and ongoing learning.

[0:03:22] Voice 9: from where I'm joining you from Salt Spring Island, which is in the traditional territories

[0:03:28] Voice 9: of several Coast Salish First Nations, including the Cowichan. I'm coming to you near the village

[0:03:36] Voice 9: of Wacom, which is a sacred place of gathering and stewardship of the Cowichan, and continues

[0:03:45] Voice 9: to be a site of cultural learning and engagement and ecological renewal where there's some really

[0:03:57] Voice 9: interesting projects happening with respect to wetland restoration of the old Burgwand Bay Farm.

[0:04:03] Voice 9: so uh at that i will um uh introduce uh our agenda and but i i will i will not hazard to

[0:04:14] Voice 9: introduce our speakers they will um have the chance to introduce themselves so

[0:04:19] Voice 9: um i introduced myself i i hope well enough and uh yeah so our first speaker will um be uh eric

[0:04:27] Voice 9: forceman from the regional district in animo's drink and water watershed protection program

[0:04:32] Voice 9: and they'll be discussing community monitoring networks in the regional district and on Gabriola.

[0:04:39] Voice 9: Following that will be Ali Badger from the BC Conservation Foundation and Sarah Hardy

[0:04:48] Voice 9: will be supporting from the Ministry of Environment and Parks on community flow

[0:04:53] Voice 9: monitoring networks. And so that'll take us to about a quarter to five and then from

[0:05:01] Voice 9: quarter to five to about five before a five-minute break. We're going to have a discussion from

[0:05:07] Voice 9: Sylvia Broso from GW Solutions, who is the consultant on this project on Gabriela Island

[0:05:14] Voice 9: freshwater resources, which we've called Sources, Hazards, and Monitoring Options.

[0:05:20] Voice 9: And then following that, we're going to have a moderated panel discussion. And at that time,

[0:05:28] Voice 9: we'll we'll ask um we have some questions that we have brought forward to ask the panel but

[0:05:33] Voice 9: also there is a question and answer um button on on zoom here so please feel free throughout

[0:05:41] Voice 9: the presentation to provide um your questions in there and we have um islands our wonderful

[0:05:49] Voice 9: islands trust staff in the background here uh compiling those questions and then and then i

[0:05:54] Voice 9: I will be moderating that panel discussion and I will bring your questions forward.

[0:06:03] Voice 9: And I think that's probably the best way to handle them.

[0:06:07] Voice 9: Yeah, so without further ado, let's stay on schedule.

[0:06:11] Voice 9: So yeah, next up is Erica.

[0:06:14] Voice 9: Thanks so much for joining us.

[0:06:18] Voice 2: Thanks so much, William.

[0:06:19] Voice 2: It's great to be here.

[0:06:20] Voice 2: I'm just going to share my presentation screen here and somebody can give me a thumbs up

[0:06:24] Voice 2: up once I accomplish that. One second. There we go. Is that working for you guys? Yes. Thumbs up.

[0:06:35] Voice 2: Okay. Sorry, I don't use Zoom very much. So always, there we go. Perfect. Great. Well, yeah, thanks so

[0:06:44] Voice 2: much for inviting me to be here, you guys. I'm excited to be talking to you today broadly about

[0:06:49] Voice 2: community monitoring networks within the RDN and narrowing in a little bit to some work that we do

[0:06:55] Voice 2: with our partners over on Gabriola and with Islands Trust.

[0:06:59] Voice 2: Just to introduce myself, yeah, my name is Erica Forsman.

[0:07:02] Voice 2: I've been with the Regional District of Nanaimo for about two years now.

[0:07:05] Voice 2: I head up the Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Program here,

[0:07:08] Voice 2: and I will begin the presentation a little bit with an introduction

[0:07:11] Voice 2: of what we do in the Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Program

[0:07:14] Voice 2: because our mandate is pretty broad, and we have a lot of different program areas.

[0:07:20] Voice 2: And then I will get into what we kind of refer to in this program

[0:07:23] Voice 2: is our sort of data to action cycle so kind of looking more specifically at some of our

[0:07:30] Voice 2: groundwater monitoring programs as well as our surface water quality monitoring programs

[0:07:34] Voice 2: and how we kind of collect data in those programs through partnerships and various modes but then

[0:07:42] Voice 2: how that feeds into reporting and then actually the action around that so all of this we really

[0:07:48] Voice 2: kind of hope you know feeds into sort of water resiliency across the region and it's important

[0:07:53] Voice 2: I think when we talk about water resiliency, that we're speaking to both water quantity and quality so kind of how those two fit together.

[0:08:01] Voice 2: So, I think I'll start here, just providing a little bit of context around, sorry can you guys see this thing on the top of the screen I wonder if I can move that.

[0:08:13] Voice 2: Anyway, I'll just continue.

[0:08:14] Voice 2: you um so just a bit of a context about the regional district of Nanaimo um just because

[0:08:19] Voice 2: I think it's important to sort of situate the work that we do across a very broad land base and I

[0:08:24] Voice 2: I chose this map here today because it doesn't really include any jurisdictional boundaries on

[0:08:28] Voice 2: it what this map is really showing you um is the overlaid uh aquifers across the region those are

[0:08:34] Voice 2: kind of in the the green those green blobs all over the place um as well as the uh those orange

[0:08:40] Voice 2: lines there are these larger sort of watershed basins that the drinking water and watershed

[0:08:46] Voice 2: protection program kind of situates our work within and how we sort of how we think within

[0:08:52] Voice 2: that program are our boundaries are so to speak. So I will note here you know if we're looking more

[0:08:59] Voice 2: broadly across the region how we sort of characterize our watersheds here you know

[0:09:03] Voice 2: fairly short distances from mountaintop to sea generally a lot of those mountaintop areas in

[0:09:09] Voice 2: the upper watersheds are managed by private managed forest land. As a result, the streams

[0:09:15] Voice 2: are fairly flashy, but it means we have a really amazing diversity of aquatic ecosystems. And as

[0:09:22] Voice 2: you can see with the green there, really complex groundwater aquifers across the region. I think

[0:09:27] Voice 2: we have about 22 mapped aquifers thus far, but those boundaries are always being remapped and

[0:09:33] Voice 2: and renegotiate it as we get more information through various monitoring networks.

[0:09:38] Voice 2: So multitude of community water systems, so in terms of where people get their water from,

[0:09:42] Voice 2: it's incredibly diverse. Some folks are on municipal systems, some on small water

[0:09:49] Voice 2: provider systems, and many folks just relying on private domestic wells for their drinking water.

[0:09:55] Voice 2: And then just to situate ourselves today on Gabriola Island. So we kind of characterize

[0:10:02] Voice 2: Gabriola Island as Water Region 7. That's sort of the name we give that place. And then within

[0:10:09] Voice 2: Gabriola, two mapped aquifers thus far, 709 and 706. So the larger one there is 709.

[0:10:16] Voice 2: But, you know, as I said, as new information comes forward, the mapping of aquifers is always

[0:10:23] Voice 2: changing as science evolves. So to sort of meet this complexity across the region, the Drinking

[0:10:30] Voice 2: water and watershed uh protection program was established to kind of create um sort of the

[0:10:35] Voice 2: an avenue for for meeting as a convening body essentially to inform local decisions and that

[0:10:42] Voice 2: that need to to coordinate across jurisdictions um so really high level some of the program goals

[0:10:48] Voice 2: you know protecting and managing restoring ecosystems and watersheds safeguarding water

[0:10:55] Voice 2: water sources for sustainable drinking water supply, also doing work to increase water use

[0:11:00] Voice 2: efficiency and optimize infrastructure, also looking at fostering social, cultural, and

[0:11:06] Voice 2: recreational enjoyment and values in watersheds, and then last but certainly not least, mitigating

[0:11:14] Voice 2: and preparing for climate change. So again, speaking to the resiliency of those water sources.

[0:11:19] Voice 2: resources. So how do we go about that exactly? So I know it's a broad and lofty goals, but through

[0:11:26] Voice 2: the Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Program, our work is really guided by a 10-year

[0:11:31] Voice 2: action plan. We're kind of halfway through this particular action plan. It was developed in 2020,

[0:11:35] Voice 2: and this plan outlines sort of program areas through water awareness and stewardship,

[0:11:41] Voice 2: so a lot of education campaigns and working with community groups on the ground,

[0:11:44] Voice 2: water information and science which I'll be really drilling into today a little bit through some of

[0:11:49] Voice 2: our monitoring programs and then where that can feed into supporting science-based decision making

[0:11:55] Voice 2: around land and water use planning and that's really where our water-centric planning and

[0:12:00] Voice 2: policy support comes in and I'll draw your attention here I think I can do this on the

[0:12:04] Voice 2: screen this lovely you know river running through all of those program areas and none of our

[0:12:10] Voice 2: programs exist in a in sort of a vacuum of working alone everything we do is through collaboration

[0:12:16] Voice 2: really and working with various partners across the jurisdictions. So I'll bring us here to our

[0:12:26] Voice 2: action our data to action sort of cycle that we work within particularly in our science and

[0:12:33] Voice 2: monitoring programs and I think really important to situate ourselves here when we talk about water

[0:12:39] Voice 2: monitoring across the region because you know data collection happens in in various ways but

[0:12:45] Voice 2: always important to kind of keep an eye on how we are reporting and sharing that data

[0:12:48] Voice 2: and and how that feeds into actions whether that be you know stream restoration and enhancement

[0:12:55] Voice 2: letting people know across the region what's happening on their aquifers and streams to

[0:13:00] Voice 2: education and outreach some of this happens through policy development licensing and

[0:13:06] Voice 2: permitting so so it's quite broad but but all of our actions that we do within our monitoring

[0:13:11] Voice 2: program is really uh done through keeping an eye on this data to action cycle so for the purposes

[0:13:17] Voice 2: of today i want to sort of highlight on two areas um where we do um water monitoring in the region

[0:13:24] Voice 2: um i know that ali is going to speak a little bit to uh stream flow monitoring but i'm going to kind

[0:13:31] Voice 2: of highlight in here some of our groundwater monitoring in terms of hydrometrics um and then

[0:13:35] Voice 2: also I'll touch on some of the work that we do with our surface water quality monitoring program,

[0:13:39] Voice 2: so looking at water chemistry for the surface water bodies across the region.

[0:13:45] Voice 2: So our volunteer observation well network is our main mode of monitoring groundwater levels across

[0:13:54] Voice 2: the region. So the volunteer observation well network was established really with the intention

[0:13:59] Voice 2: of expanding groundwater level data collection beyond what's seen with the provincial observation

[0:14:05] Voice 2: So you can see on that map there, the provincial observation wells are those little green triangles, and we really work to fill in the gaps there with all of those orange triangles across the region.

[0:14:17] Voice 2: So through this program, you know, we have 31 private well owners have volunteered to have groundwater level monitoring equipment,

[0:14:25] Voice 2: also known as pressure transducers, installed in their wells.

[0:14:29] Voice 2: And these pressure transducers, they measure water level, record data level every 15 minutes, and then Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Program staff go out and they download about three to four times a year to capture what is being recorded on those loggers.

[0:14:48] Voice 2: I'll also note that about 14 of those loggers also measure conductivity.

[0:14:53] Voice 2: So that's looking at things like tracking saline intrusion.

[0:14:56] Voice 2: So on some of our more coastal wells, so that we can track a little bit of information about water quality in those wells, in addition to levels.

[0:15:06] Voice 2: So this program, just kind of going back, was the expansion of monitoring wells, was established back in 2013.

[0:15:13] Voice 2: 13. And over the years, we sort of expanded that network to fill additional gaps as reporting has

[0:15:19] Voice 2: made some recommendations on this. So in terms of site selection and setup, the equipment was,

[0:15:27] Voice 2: as I mentioned, was installed in pre-existing private wells. So these are well owners like

[0:15:32] Voice 2: many of you on Gabriola who are, you know, just pumping water off of a well that you manage on

[0:15:36] Voice 2: your own property, which meant that there was no need to drill new wells for monitoring equipment.

[0:15:41] Voice 2: but it does mean that this is really a program based on collaboration with residents across the region.

[0:15:47] Voice 2: So to establish these sites, letters were mailed out to residents and well owners in some priority areas,

[0:15:54] Voice 2: and the sites were really selected based on several factors.

[0:15:58] Voice 2: So some of it was about willingness of partners, which was a really considerable one,

[0:16:02] Voice 2: but it was really looking at where those gaps were across the region,

[0:16:06] Voice 2: where there wasn't monitoring happening with those provincial wells,

[0:16:09] Voice 2: and then recommendations about where data gaps needed to be filled so installation so yes then

[0:16:18] Voice 2: sites were ground truths for viability so this kind of comes down to ease of access getting in

[0:16:23] Voice 2: a large truck with a crane to install equipment also for staff safety for our RDN staff to be

[0:16:30] Voice 2: able to go out and actually do those well downloads well construction had to meet best

[0:16:35] Voice 2: practices to be a contender to join this program and also wells needed to have an availability of

[0:16:42] Voice 2: well records to determine the aquifer source well depth and the static water levels so how and when

[0:16:50] Voice 2: data is downloaded so we go out as i mentioned three to four times a year we use a laptop or

[0:16:56] Voice 2: bluetooth data is downloaded with a directory read cable and then while we're at the site we

[0:17:03] Voice 2: take manual water level readings as well, which really helps to coincide with the logger reading

[0:17:08] Voice 2: for data verification. And then I'll also mention that if a conductivity logger is installed,

[0:17:15] Voice 2: calibration for that is then completed ideally every six months on those sites.

[0:17:21] Voice 2: So what is it that we record? So the pressure transducer measures the water column above the

[0:17:27] Voice 2: logger every 15 minutes. We are kind of revisiting that every 15 minutes to maybe change that, but

[0:17:33] Voice 2: up until this point that's kind of how we've installed these and then barrel loggers are

[0:17:37] Voice 2: also installed which are used to compensate for atmospheric pressure in these sites

[0:17:42] Voice 2: that manual water level reading gives a depth to water and then what this ends up producing

[0:17:47] Voice 2: is a level of water as a below ground hydrograph so you can kind of see this here

[0:17:52] Voice 2: this is one from one of the provincial observation wells but it really gives us

[0:17:56] Voice 2: the the seasonal sort of water level reading as you go up and down through the seasons in

[0:18:01] Voice 2: that particular part of the aquifer. So just a few considerations about this particular program

[0:18:07] Voice 2: to note. So really key, as with many of our monitoring programs, that establishing partnerships

[0:18:13] Voice 2: is essential. We really can't do this alone. So thinking through, you know, connecting with

[0:18:18] Voice 2: stream keepers or stewardship groups, and in this case, private landowners. Funding is also

[0:18:24] Voice 2: a consideration. So setup for these sites is quite costly. But then ongoing funding and long-term

[0:18:32] Voice 2: funding is essential to make sure that you can maintain the equipment on these sites and upgrade

[0:18:36] Voice 2: as needed. And then also a big consideration is making sure that you have long-term program

[0:18:44] Voice 2: capacity. It's noted that, you know, you really do need between six and ten years of data to really

[0:18:50] Voice 2: begin to develop any robust trend lines when you're doing analysis. So you can't really do

[0:18:55] Voice 2: much of a snapshot to really be able to see where the trends are headed. So also important to

[0:19:01] Voice 2: identify you know why are you monitoring what are you hoping to accomplish and how will these data

[0:19:07] Voice 2: be used so just to jump in here so some of the ways that we use this information and and how we

[0:19:13] Voice 2: move from collecting data to reporting and then into action so so where can we actually see this

[0:19:19] Voice 2: information so annually since 2020 we publish a groundwater pre-summer groundwater level analysis

[0:19:27] Voice 2: for observation wells across the region and this brings together both data sets from the

[0:19:32] Voice 2: provincial observation well and the RDN's volunteer observation well network which really helps to

[0:19:39] Voice 2: provide this sort of snapshot of conditions ahead of the summer season. We usually take this to our

[0:19:44] Voice 2: board of directors in June so that you know we can make decisions going into the summer season

[0:19:50] Voice 2: season about kind of what the outlook could potentially be. So we share with municipal

[0:19:56] Voice 2: improvement districts, small water system staff, and really hope that this can guide some

[0:20:01] Voice 2: operational decisions and support and inform communication approaches across the region.

[0:20:07] Voice 2: So just looking at this here, this is from the report that we published last year. This is

[0:20:12] Voice 2: Volunteer Observation Well 8 over on Gabriola Island. So we published two different graphs as

[0:20:18] Voice 2: part of this report so this is the linear trend showing static water levels you can see it

[0:20:23] Voice 2: stretches back all the way to 2013 since that observation well was established which helps us

[0:20:28] Voice 2: establish that trend line there and you can kind of see it's going slightly down over the last you

[0:20:33] Voice 2: know 10 or 11 years of collecting data on this particular site. We also publish in the report

[0:20:41] Voice 2: the seasonal static water level which is useful to kind of dive into comparing year by year and

[0:20:47] Voice 1: where

[0:20:47] Voice 2: you may stand at a certain point in the year to be able to make some predictions about

[0:20:51] Voice 2: how you may want to adjust some management of that particular well or aquifer. So you can see

[0:20:56] Voice 2: 2024 pretty much in kind of average as we were as we were reporting out last year. So you can

[0:21:04] Voice 2: kind of look forward to seeing this report coming out in the next month and a half as we kind of go

[0:21:08] Voice 2: out and get all those downloads done and are able to publish this information. So then moving into

[0:21:14] Voice 2: to that part of the cycle that we kind of refer to as action so so where can this go well you know

[0:21:20] Voice 2: today we entered into stage two watering restrictions across most of the region um so this

[0:21:25] Voice 2: kind of uh data can really inform um considerations about how uh we approach uh communication and and

[0:21:33] Voice 2: and you know some and things like that to to ask people to reduce their water use um and and i will

[0:21:39] Voice 2: note i put on here you know the bc provincial drought map drought ratings across the province

[0:21:45] Voice 2: are largely informed by stream flow but we do know through very many many studies across the region

[0:21:51] Voice 2: that you know surface water and groundwater are very much connected in a lot of streams so

[0:21:56] Voice 2: asking people to reduce their use of water certainly can have an effect on stream flow

[0:22:02] Voice 2: in certain parts of the region so another action where this can feed into is is about public

[0:22:09] Voice 2: education and knowledge sharing. And I think this is an important one as well. We distributed

[0:22:15] Voice 2: this publication to residents on groundwater across the region last month. So we mailed this

[0:22:22] Voice 2: out to about 36,000 residents in the RDN, and I hope some of you folks over on Gabriola received

[0:22:27] Voice 2: it. And so really, the idea of this was to communicate monitoring results and highlight

[0:22:34] Voice 2: highlight water level trends and aquifers across the region, but allowed people to kind of drill

[0:22:39] Voice 2: down and access some of that information about their own particular aquifer. And really what

[0:22:44] Voice 2: we were trying to tell here is some compelling stories that would connect people to their

[0:22:48] Voice 2: groundwater source and show where monitoring can tease out those important stories about that water

[0:22:55] Voice 2: source and what their connections to it are. So I know I'm kind of running short on time. So I

[0:23:00] Voice 2: I did want to touch as well on some of the surface water quality monitoring that we do.

[0:23:06] Voice 2: Our Community Watershed Monitoring Network is a program that was really started with the goal to increase water knowledge and understanding of surface water quality across the region.

[0:23:17] Voice 2: So this started way back in 2011 and was really a good example, I think, of a program designed with partnerships in mind.

[0:23:26] Voice 2: So it was designed with the protocols and methods that align with provincial standards, really in partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.

[0:23:35] Voice 2: We kind of took the lead on a lot of the coordination of the program.

[0:23:39] Voice 2: But then, you know, the boots on the ground, streamkeeper volunteers, and then also bringing in private forestry to contribute to the program as well.

[0:23:49] Voice 2: So the sites for this program were selected, again, to fill those data gaps.

[0:23:53] Voice 2: So, you know, getting more fine-grained information across the region to allow us to make better science-based decisions.

[0:24:02] Voice 2: So in this program, we have two sampling periods.

[0:24:05] Voice 2: So we sample during times when we see that, you know, streams are more stressed.

[0:24:11] Voice 2: So, you know, during those low flow, the summer low flow, and then also the fall flush.

[0:24:16] Voice 2: So after we get that really big first rain event of the year.

[0:24:20] Voice 2: And we sample for five consecutive weeks.

[0:24:24] Voice 2: So, so volunteers are out there, you know, for, we call it the five and 10 kind of approach. So over, or sorry, that I'm messing up kind of the way we talk about it. So five and 30. So we call it the five and 30. So five samples over the course of 30 days is the approach there.

[0:24:42] Voice 2: there. And then so all data is entered and stored publicly, it's publicly accessible on the

[0:24:48] Voice 2: provincially managed EMS database. So folks can go in there and download that data. Planners can use

[0:24:54] Voice 2: it, landowners can use it to make decisions about and understand better kind of what's happening on

[0:25:00] Voice 2: a stream that may be adjacent to them. So we train volunteers with equipment use. And so they're

[0:25:07] Voice 2: ready to go out there and gather the data and generally we're kind of out there and kind of

[0:25:15] Voice 2: this was last year on 38 streams across the region at 67 different sites so really really broad

[0:25:21] Voice 2: ability to monitor streams across the region through this sort of collaborative effort

[0:25:26] Voice 2: so this just shows you kind of all the different partnerships that are involved in making this

[0:25:31] Voice 2: program run and really underscoring here that partnerships are really key to making programs

[0:25:36] Voice 2: like this work, you know, with community stewardship groups, boots on the ground,

[0:25:41] Voice 2: collecting the information, the drinking water and watershed protection program here at the RDN,

[0:25:46] Voice 2: really coordinating it and funding equipment and providing technical support, and all of it really

[0:25:52] Voice 2: going into supporting project prioritization, land use planning, funding applications, and

[0:25:58] Voice 2: awareness and stewardship. So in terms of what we actually sample for, we look at turbidity. So

[0:26:05] Voice 2: So that's those suspended particles in the water column.

[0:26:08] Voice 2: And this can be a link to things like erosion, contaminants, and stormwater influence.

[0:26:13] Voice 2: We also look at water temperature.

[0:26:15] Voice 2: This is really important for looking at, you know, aquatic life guidelines for coho rearing, for example.

[0:26:21] Voice 2: So you can look at that.

[0:26:23] Voice 2: Dissolved oxygen as well, of course, supporting aquatic life.

[0:26:26] Voice 2: So important to monitor where that is at.

[0:26:28] Voice 2: and specific conductivity which is not really outlined by the province as having a a specific

[0:26:35] Voice 2: kind of exceedance but it can provide us a little bit of information additional information to

[0:26:43] Voice 2: explain other results that we're seeing on these streams and begin to target a restoration action

[0:26:48] Voice 2: on those streams. So in terms of where we're sampling I include this because I think it's

[0:26:54] Voice 2: really important first of all to acknowledge all the various stream keeper groups that are involved

[0:26:59] Voice 2: in this program but also emphasizing that through those partnerships really wide geographical range

[0:27:06] Voice 2: of streams that are able to be to be monitored through this program and through this method

[0:27:13] Voice 2: so then in terms of data analysis and reporting so we report annually to stream keepers local

[0:27:19] Voice 2: local governments and residents and we put together these box plots that really work to

[0:27:24] Voice 2: compare current year of data collected to previous years. You can kind of look at the data and see

[0:27:29] Voice 2: how things may be changing specifically in a specific year and then after six years of sampling

[0:27:36] Voice 2: on a particular site we're able to develop trend lines so we can kind of see if things are

[0:27:42] Voice 2: improving or degrading which can give us a better idea of where we need to target restoration

[0:27:47] Voice 2: duration actions. And then in the last few years, we've also created basin delineations for each

[0:27:53] Voice 2: site. So mapping to kind of upstream of monitoring sites so that we can better communicate where

[0:28:00] Voice 2: there may be influences on a stream that could be contributing to those water quality results.

[0:28:05] Voice 2: So then into action. So again, you know, we provide a lot of stewardship support

[0:28:12] Voice 2: for to kind of give folks the tools to use this data to move into some two different forms of

[0:28:20] Voice 2: actions. So we provide stewardship seed funding as a sort of small grant funding program where

[0:28:26] Voice 2: stewardship groups can access up to $10,000 a year for different types of restoration and

[0:28:32] Voice 2: enhancement efforts. But really, the idea here is to empower folks to use the data they collect

[0:28:40] Voice 2: um to move into community-based actions that we can support um through these programs so i'll just

[0:28:48] Voice 2: leave us on again this data to action cycle um because i really think it's important to emphasize

[0:28:55] Voice 2: here that that action does occur at all levels so you know that includes stream keepers um

[0:29:00] Voice 2: environmental stewards first nations local government um private industry and it really

[0:29:06] Voice 2: it's it's all folks on the land that are contributing to to you know increasing uh the

[0:29:11] Voice 2: the quality and quantity of water that we see on those streams and i'll also emphasize through this

[0:29:16] Voice 2: sort of area about in terms of reporting um it's really essential to ensure that information is

[0:29:22] Voice 2: publicly available which which can then in turn promote uh collaboration and transparency uh for

[0:29:28] Voice 2: that common goal of increasing watershed health and again i think important to also emphasize

[0:29:35] Voice 2: that funding is essential here as well to then support a lot of these actions so really sort of

[0:29:41] Voice 2: all the support that's required in all of this data to action cycle that the drinking water and

[0:29:45] Voice 2: watershed protection program has has some some influence over so yeah i i'll leave it there

[0:29:53] Voice 2: sorry i went over time a little bit uh sort of uh went through the end of those slides pretty

[0:29:57] Voice 2: quickly but just trying to leave some time for the other speakers but

[0:29:59] Voice 2: But yeah.

[0:30:00] Voice 2: happy to take questions when we when we open up the panel later so thanks william yes thank you

[0:30:07] Voice 9: so much for that presentation erica a lot of great information in there um i know i generated a few

[0:30:13] Voice 9: questions of my of my own when you're speaking and um yeah uh just a another um note that that this

[0:30:21] Voice 9: presentation webinar is uh recorded so um those who are attending can go back and and revisit um

[0:30:30] Voice 9: Erica's presentation. So we will move on swiftly to our next speakers, speaking about community

[0:30:39] Voice 9: flow monitoring networks. And I see that Allie is on the screen. And so without further ado,

[0:30:46] Voice 9: I will leave it with you. Thank you.

[0:30:48] Voice 8: Okay, great. Thanks, William. Same thing here. I'm just gonna

[0:30:51] Voice 8: to share my screen looks like I just had to put in a request to share there we go okay and same

[0:31:11] Voice 8: thing if I could just get a thumbs up that everyone can see my screen here that would be great awesome

[0:31:18] Voice 8: okay great well hello everyone thanks so much for inviting me today and for this opportunity to speak

[0:31:24] Voice 8: to you all so as William said my name is Allie Badger and I'm a biologist with the BC Conservation

[0:31:29] Voice 8: Conservation Foundation. And so today I'm here to tell you about the sort of stream flow or

[0:31:34] Voice 8: surface flow monitoring side, so the quantity monitoring, water quantity monitoring, as well

[0:31:40] Voice 8: as a program that I lead called the Community Flow Monitoring Network. So in case you're not

[0:31:49] Voice 8: aware of who we are, the BC Conservation Foundation is a not-for-profit. We have three offices across

[0:31:55] Voice 8: BC, and our Aquatic Research and Restoration Centre, which is where I work out of, is based

[0:32:01] Voice 8: in Nanaimo. And we work on a variety of projects across Vancouver Island, all kind of related to

[0:32:07] Voice 8: fisheries research, as well as aquatic ecosystem restoration and monitoring projects. So the

[0:32:17] Voice 8: Community Flow Monitoring Network is a program that we launched in 2022. And the aim of this

[0:32:22] Voice 8: project is to support and enhance hydrometric or flow monitoring that's being conducted by

[0:32:29] Voice 8: community streamkeeper groups, other ENGOs and First Nations across the sort of east coast of

[0:32:34] Voice 8: Vancouver Island region. And this is very much a collaboration between BC Conservation Foundation

[0:32:41] Voice 8: and the Ministry of Environment and the sort of provincial hydrometric team. Sarah is my colleague

[0:32:47] Voice 8: from the province and she'll be sort of talking later on. And we're also working with local and

[0:32:53] Voice 8: and regional governments like the regional district of Nanaimo to sort of look at regional

[0:32:58] Voice 8: priorities for enhancing community-based flow monitoring and also how our program can potentially

[0:33:05] Voice 8: complement some existing water monitoring efforts that exist like the community watershed monitoring

[0:33:10] Voice 8: network that Erica mentioned. So the kind of overall high-level goals of this program are one

[0:33:20] Voice 8: to create and empower stewards for protecting stream flow and fish habitat and this is kind of

[0:33:25] Voice 8: of that goal that my biology perspective brings in. But more specifically, we're trying to improve

[0:33:30] Voice 8: community-based flow data collection so that it meets government standards, and then make the

[0:33:36] Voice 8: data from the community flow stations that we support more accessible. And we decided to kind

[0:33:43] Voice 8: of take this coordinated network type of approach in order to bring together groups all across the

[0:33:49] Voice 8: Vancouver Island region that are interested in flow monitoring or were possibly already engaged

[0:33:53] Voice 8: in flow monitoring and needed support. So before I get into some more of the

[0:34:01] Voice 8: details of our program I thought it'd be helpful for anyone who's not really

[0:34:05] Voice 8: familiar just to kind of take a step back for a moment and provide a bit more

[0:34:09] Voice 8: context on what flow monitoring actually looks like and why it's important. So

[0:34:14] Voice 8: when we talk about monitoring flow we're essentially talking about monitoring the

[0:34:18] Voice 8: amount or the volume of water that's flowing through a stream over time and

[0:34:24] Voice 8: And this is an incredibly important part of any water monitoring effort.

[0:34:28] Voice 8: So flow data can complement and help with interpreting water quality.

[0:34:32] Voice 8: It can also be used to help kind of track the impacts of climate change at a local scale.

[0:34:38] Voice 8: And along with this, it can help us to better understand how we can manage sort of increasing and often competing demands for water use.

[0:34:46] Voice 8: And with our growing communities, we can track changes in natural flow regimes, often due to development and urbanization.

[0:34:54] Voice 8: and flow can be a limiting factor for aquatic habitat and environmental flow needs are an

[0:35:00] Voice 8: increasingly important conservation issue. So when we look at flow monitoring stations on Vancouver

[0:35:10] Voice 8: Island many of you might be familiar with Water Survey of Canada which operates flow stations on

[0:35:16] Voice 8: sort of larger rivers in collaboration with the province and their provincial hydrometric team

[0:35:21] Voice 8: So this would be the BC sort of fed stations here on the graph.

[0:35:26] Voice 8: But community stations actually account for about 25% of all hydrometric monitoring stations on Vancouver Island.

[0:35:33] Voice 8: And they actually make up the majority of active stations that are monitoring small first order watersheds.

[0:35:39] Voice 8: It's about 56%.

[0:35:41] Voice 8: And if you look at the many thousands of streams on Vancouver Island, the large majority of these watersheds are actually small first and second order.

[0:35:50] Voice 8: and many of these small streams have had sort of that have historically supported valuable fish

[0:35:57] Voice 8: stocks and being subject to intensive water use have had little to no historical flow monitoring

[0:36:02] Voice 8: conducted. So this really means that these community efforts are substantial and quite

[0:36:07] Voice 8: important for monitoring many of these streams that would otherwise be ungauged and I will note

[0:36:12] Voice 8: that this data is from 2022 which is the year that our flow monitoring network program started

[0:36:17] Voice 8: it. So there's definitely more community stations now that we've helped to install. And there's also

[0:36:22] Voice 8: likely more government run stations as well. So despite sounding pretty straightforward,

[0:36:31] Voice 8: streamflow is actually quite a complex parameter to monitor for. It's really not the type of

[0:36:36] Voice 8: situation where you can kind of, you know, drop a data logger and then just come back and check

[0:36:40] Voice 8: it every once in a while. There's a lot of hands-on work involved. So in order to calculate

[0:36:46] Voice 8: calculate flow, which is also known as discharge, you need to really know three different parameters.

[0:36:51] Voice 8: So you need to know the speed of the moving water, which we also call velocity. And then you need to

[0:36:56] Voice 8: know the total amount of water in sort of a two-dimensional space. So in the image here,

[0:37:02] Voice 8: you can see there's sort of the width or the end, the width, as well as the depth. And that would be

[0:37:07] Voice 8: sort of if you took a slice of the stream, the way the image sort of shows here. And so with those

[0:37:14] Voice 8: two things that sort of area calculation and the velocity you can see on the

[0:37:19] Voice 8: image here the equation if you have velocity and area you can get discharge

[0:37:23] Voice 8: which is equal to volume over time but as you can imagine the depth and the

[0:37:29] Voice 8: width as well as the speed of the water in the stream are always constantly

[0:37:34] Voice 8: changing and so there's instruments that we can use to kind of assess all of

[0:37:41] Voice 8: these parameters at a given time and this is what we call a discrete

[0:37:44] Voice 8: great discharge measurement and there's some examples of our volunteers kind of just doing

[0:37:49] Voice 8: that here but there isn't really an instrument that can monitor all three of these parameters

[0:37:54] Voice 8: all of the time in order to collect this discharge or flow data on a continuous basis. So the general

[0:38:02] Voice 8: approach to being able to monitor flow continuously is that we assess just one of these

[0:38:07] Voice 8: parameters over time and that is water depth. So our kind of typical community gauging station

[0:38:18] Voice 8: looks similar to this image here and it usually consists of a data logger that records the water

[0:38:25] Voice 8: level and it uses a pressure sensor so we'll also need a barrel logger nearby to record barometric

[0:38:32] Voice 8: or atmospheric pressure that we can use to compensate our water level data. And then we

[0:38:38] Voice 8: also usually have a staff gauge or some kind of stage reference point and stage is just another

[0:38:44] Voice 8: term for water level. We also usually have benchmarks so these are reference points that

[0:38:50] Voice 8: we survey in twice a year to ensure that the station is kind of stable and that our logger and

[0:38:56] Voice 8: our staff gauge aren't moving. And then the other important feature of our control or sorry of our

[0:39:03] Voice 8: our gauging station is the control point. And this is essentially sort of the sum of features

[0:39:08] Voice 8: that are downstream of our gauging pool that regulate the sort of water level and flow in

[0:39:14] Voice 8: that pool. And this is related to the kind of energy and resistance of the system. And this

[0:39:21] Voice 8: is usually a, it can be something like a natural riffle or more of an artificial structure like a

[0:39:27] Voice 8: weir. And so because we can only monitor that one sort of water level parameter continuously,

[0:39:36] Voice 8: there's quite a bit of back-end work that goes into establishing a flow station because we have

[0:39:42] Voice 8: to turn that water level data from the logger we have to turn it into discharge or flow data

[0:39:47] Voice 8: by sort of going out and collecting those discrete discharge measurements

[0:39:53] Voice 8: over time and then pairing that with our staff gauge or our stage readings

[0:39:58] Voice 8: and we have to turn it into flow data because that's ultimately what we're interested in

[0:40:02] Voice 8: And so we do that by with something called a rating curve. So we'll go out at least six times per year, collect those discharge and stage measurements, and then we can kind of plot those measurements together and we establish this relationship between that stage and discharge or the water level in the gauge pool and the flow rate of the stream.

[0:40:22] Voice 8: And this takes a lot of time and technical experience to sort of build these rating

[0:40:27] Voice 8: curves which is a really important aspect of our collaboration with the province because we

[0:40:31] Voice 8: definitely benefit from their expertise in this regard. And then once we kind of have this rating

[0:40:37] Voice 8: curve we can translate the raw level logger data into discharge over time. And so this graph here

[0:40:45] Voice 8: just shows kind of an example of a time series from one of our sites. So this would be discharge

[0:40:51] Voice 8: charge on the y-axis and then time on the x-axis. And you can see all these little sort of boot

[0:40:56] Voice 8: prints down below represent where our volunteers have gone out and done site visits. So as you

[0:41:10] Voice 8: may have gathered there, like I said, there's definitely a lot of effort required in actually

[0:41:14] Voice 8: operating these flow monitoring stations. And so kind of where we come in with the flow monitoring

[0:41:19] Voice 8: network is that we try to remove some of the barriers that folks will face getting into flow

[0:41:24] Voice 8: monitoring so we're a very hands-on program we offer field support as well as equipment loans

[0:41:31] Voice 8: and we facilitate equipment sharing some of the equipment involved in flow monitoring is quite

[0:41:36] Voice 8: expensive so it makes sense if groups can kind of share equipment not you know every group that

[0:41:41] Voice 8: wants to monitor flow has to purchase their own so we'll go out and we support site visits with

[0:41:47] Voice 8: volunteers until they feel comfortable and kind of confident with the instruments and equipment

[0:41:52] Voice 8: meant to go out and be able to monitor independently. We also have a standard operating

[0:41:58] Voice 8: procedures and we've also published kind of a whole set of other resources that are available

[0:42:04] Voice 8: to anyone on our project website. We also have network-wide meetings and we do training workshops

[0:42:11] Voice 8: where we bring people together. We actually hosted our first community flow monitoring network flow

[0:42:17] Voice 8: Lowe Regatta last summer, and that was a really big success. And then in addition, all the data

[0:42:22] Voice 8: collected by the groups that participate in the network with us is shared directly with the

[0:42:28] Voice 8: province and housed on their central hydrometric database called Aquarius. So as I said, our kind

[0:42:39] Voice 8: of strong partnership with the province is a really major asset to this program. So in addition

[0:42:44] Voice 8: to their technical support, kind of helping us work with the data and building rating curves,

[0:42:49] Voice 8: All the data that's collected as part of this project is professionally reviewed, graded, approved, and then ultimately published on Aquarius, which is a website that anyone can access.

[0:43:00] Voice 8: So it means that the data is really accessible and that end users can be really confident that it is reliable and, you know, defensible quality flow data.

[0:43:10] Voice 8: And so this is kind of just outlines our data review process and the sort of approximate timeline of how it works.

[0:43:18] Voice 8: and you can see that there's feedback from the province to BC Conservation Foundation so as I

[0:43:25] Voice 8: upload the data I sort of give an initial check and then the province goes through and will provide

[0:43:32] Voice 8: feedback on any data submissions things that need changing etc and then both the province and

[0:43:39] Voice 8: and BCCF or BC Conservation Foundation we provide feedback directly back to the volunteers and

[0:43:45] Voice 8: And that's not necessarily just through training workshops, but really we're providing that kind of on an ongoing basis as soon as we can, kind of after we've received the data submissions.

[0:43:58] Voice 8: And so here's a map just to kind of give you a sense of where some of the currently active stations that we're helping to support are located.

[0:44:12] Voice 8: So and then on the right here, these are the community groups that we're partnered with who operate these stations.

[0:44:17] Voice 8: and we currently have nine active stations located between about Courtney and Nanaimo

[0:44:24] Voice 8: and some of these stations have been collecting flow data like for many years prior to our program

[0:44:30] Voice 8: and some of these are brand new stations that we've helped to install over the past couple of

[0:44:34] Voice 8: years. The three stations you'll see in Nanaimo are new. I think Departure Creek was installed in

[0:44:40] Voice 8: 2023 and then Wally Creek and Cottle Creek we just installed last fall and really by bringing

[0:44:47] Voice 8: together kind of all these different groups around the region and creating this like coordinated

[0:44:53] Voice 8: network we've really been able to not only facilitate more like stronger data collection

[0:44:59] Voice 8: but also really kind of foster that sharing and collaboration aspects as well. So in summary you

[0:45:10] Voice 8: you saw that we had nine active stations and we have at least two kind of more planned for this

[0:45:16] Voice 8: year. We're actually planning to install a new station in Wacquam on Salt Spring Island that

[0:45:22] Voice 8: William mentioned earlier in partnership with the Stakea Learning Society. And Erica mentioned the

[0:45:30] Voice 8: importance of the sort of long-term nature of like having these long-term data sets for things like

[0:45:35] Voice 8: trend analysis and this is really true for surface flow monitoring as well so a big accomplishment

[0:45:42] Voice 8: sort of recently in the past year or so of this project is that all the data that we've collected

[0:45:48] Voice 8: from the community stations is now available on Aquarius and this includes many years in fact

[0:45:55] Voice 8: decades of historical data across all the stations as I mentioned some of them were

[0:45:59] Voice 8: kind of monitoring before becoming involved with our programs we've been able to go through and

[0:46:04] Voice 8: and actually look at all that data and make it available on Aquarius which is really exciting

[0:46:10] Voice 8: and we're trying to work with our partner groups kind of now on how we can start to use this data

[0:46:15] Voice 8: to inform conservation projects that kind of align with their monitoring goals every group

[0:46:21] Voice 8: has sort of different goals and reasons behind why they want to collect this data

[0:46:24] Voice 8: so these types of projects could be like hands-on restoration type projects or just using the data

[0:46:31] Voice 8: to sort of advocate for watershed protections and we have a few examples of sites where we've been

[0:46:37] Voice 8: able to share data with different levels of government to help inform you know other

[0:46:42] Voice 8: projects they may have often related to fish passage so things like culvert upgrades

[0:46:50] Voice 8: and we've definitely seen a strong demand in this program by community groups and first nations

[0:46:55] Voice 8: and there's a lot of enthusiasm really behind flow monitoring and collecting this data which

[0:47:01] Voice 8: which is great to see. So, for example, we've had over 1,000 volunteer hours since 2022,

[0:47:08] Voice 8: and we are hoping to expand. We have a lot of interest from kind of groups all across the East

[0:47:15] Voice 8: Coast from, you know, Victoria and the Gulf Islands up to Campbell River. But we are a small

[0:47:20] Voice 8: team, so we can kind of only grow, you know, as our program budget and the staff capacity will

[0:47:26] Voice 8: will allow for and so because of this high demand we do have limited capacity for new involvement

[0:47:33] Voice 8: like in terms of taking on new stations kind of beyond our current commitments this year

[0:47:38] Voice 8: but if folks are really interested there's certainly opportunity for involvement in

[0:47:42] Voice 8: things like training events and we're more than happy to share resources like our standard

[0:47:48] Voice 8: operating procedure with anyone who's interested and we're also very happy to discuss future

[0:47:53] Voice 8: future involvement. Okay, so thanks very much. I will note that we have a project website to

[0:48:02] Voice 8: cfmnbi or Community Flow Monitoring Network, vancouverisland.com. And you're also welcome

[0:48:07] Voice 8: to email me, but I'm just going to pass it off to Sarah. If you're ready, I can stop sharing here.

[0:48:15] Voice 8: Yeah,

[0:48:19] Voice 5: I'll try here.

[0:48:28] Voice 7: Can everybody see? Oh, no. Can everybody see my? Good to go? Okay, perfect.

[0:48:35] Voice 7: thank you um yeah thanks Ali that was a wonderful overview of the network um I'm Sarah Hardy a

[0:48:42] Voice 7: hydrometric specialist with the provincial hydrology program based out of Nanaimo as well

[0:48:46] Voice 7: and I work with Ali and volunteers across the island and the provincial role is primarily

[0:48:51] Voice 7: based on mentoring and helping folks build up the skills they need to measure stream flow

[0:48:55] Voice 7: additionally for the flow one program we do also provide support for data review which Ali

[0:49:00] Voice 7: went over which is a very large and often overlooked but one of the most important

[0:49:03] Voice 7: important pieces of the monitoring puzzle so many folks are keen and able to get out collecting

[0:49:08] Voice 7: field data like installing water level sensors in the stream and taking discharge measurements

[0:49:12] Voice 7: but that's really only about a quarter of the actual work that needs to be done the beast

[0:49:16] Voice 7: really is in data review and all the work behind the scenes to produce reliable streamflow data

[0:49:20] Voice 7: and this is where many monitoring programs kind of break down or find difficulties often you'll

[0:49:25] Voice 7: see raw data just sitting on someone's you know computer for years and years without ever being

[0:49:29] Voice 7: reviewed or available for use. So data review is certainly something that should be discussed at

[0:49:34] Voice 7: the beginning of every monitoring program, who will be doing it and using what tools, as well

[0:49:39] Voice 7: what quality of data that you'll be aiming to answer the questions you've identified for the

[0:49:43] Voice 7: purposes of your monitoring. So the provincial risk standards is shown on that bottom left

[0:49:48] Voice 7: corner. It's a really great tool for setting the scene for this and also detailing the standard

[0:49:52] Voice 7: methods for streamflow data collection and review in the province. I won't get too far into this

[0:49:59] Voice 7: because Ali did actually cover this but basically we were talking that streamflow is kind of

[0:50:04] Voice 7: difficult to measure compared to some other water parameters like water quality and that is

[0:50:08] Voice 7: basically because we're not actually measuring it directly we're modeling it so instead we're

[0:50:13] Voice 7: measuring that water level or stage over time and then taking discrete water level and discharge

[0:50:18] Voice 7: measurements and then creating the stage discharge relationship based on mathematical equations and

[0:50:24] Voice 7: then producing a discharge or streamflow data set that often looks eerily similar to the stage data

[0:50:28] Voice 7: dataset. But anyways, how stage gets transformed into discharge is sometimes a little bit magical.

[0:50:34] Voice 7: Data is often given to us freely without explanation. And anyone who has tried to do

[0:50:38] Voice 7: this knows how difficult it can be, because streams are highly dynamic in variable places

[0:50:42] Voice 7: that are constantly changing. So uncertainty seems to be kind of everywhere in hydrology.

[0:50:47] Voice 7: But really just want to stress, the key is to have folks that are knowledgeable in hydrology

[0:50:52] Voice 7: and are familiar with the stream sites themselves to help produce this data if you're going to be

[0:50:55] Voice 7: be doing it. So once you do have surface water data, groups are often interested in making their

[0:51:02] Voice 7: data more publicly accessible. So the province is able to share hydrometric data through a few

[0:51:06] Voice 7: different platforms. It generally requires that you submit a standard data sharing agreement with

[0:51:11] Voice 7: the province. This also outlines that the data is shared according to the BC open information and

[0:51:16] Voice 7: open data policy. There is further information available on what that all entails, but essentially

[0:51:20] Voice 7: once that data is available, it can be accessed and used by anyone. The two different places that

[0:51:26] Voice 7: the data is available is on the Aquarius time series that Alia also mentioned and also Erica

[0:51:31] Voice 7: did as well on the real-time water data tool pictured on the left and also on the BC data

[0:51:36] Voice 7: catalog. So there's a fair bit of information available at the link at the bottom on further

[0:51:41] Voice 7: details about these platforms as well as on the agreements and the policies for anyone that might

[0:51:45] Voice 7: be further interested in this. So I'm just going to have a bit of a closer look at the Aquarius

[0:51:52] Voice 7: time series or the real-time water data tool. It houses all sorts of water information, groundwater,

[0:51:57] Voice 7: groundwater surface water snow and anyone can access this data for streamflow data it does

[0:52:02] Voice 7: house information in chart and table forms and so there's lots of different ways you can use it

[0:52:07] Voice 7: a bit of a disclaimer that not all of the data on here is reviewed so there's certainly varying

[0:52:12] Voice 7: levels of quality in the data available on the site so it's really imperative to check whether

[0:52:17] Voice 7: the data has been reviewed and graded before using it and then just to wrap up quickly i just wanted

[0:52:25] Voice 7: to provide a bit more information about our program and our primary roles are basically to

[0:52:30] Voice 7: manage the relationship with the federal government for the Water Survey of Canada sites as well as we

[0:52:34] Voice 7: also have our own provincial hydrometric network that we monitor. We also publish operational

[0:52:40] Voice 7: standards for hydrometric data production and are always happy to chat about those

[0:52:44] Voice 7: and lastly which is really important for community groups is that we provide training, mentoring and

[0:52:50] Voice 7: and equipment support for data collection and review.

[0:52:52] Voice 7: So we are available to come out to sites,

[0:52:54] Voice 7: do virtual workshops to provide training

[0:52:56] Voice 7: on how to collect field data or how to do data review.

[0:52:59] Voice 7: We can scope and serving

[0:53:03] Voice 7: and are just generally available to continue mentoring

[0:53:06] Voice 7: and building up skills and support over time

[0:53:08] Voice 7: for volunteer groups.

[0:53:10] Voice 7: So if there's any further questions,

[0:53:12] Voice 7: please feel free to contact me anytime

[0:53:13] Voice 7: at my email below and thanks very much.

[0:53:27] Voice 5: There you go.

[0:53:28] Voice 5: Great,

[0:53:29] Voice 9: thank you so much for the presentation.

[0:53:33] Voice 9: I have, yeah, several questions that came to my mind when that presentation was happening.

[0:53:40] Voice 9: And that reminds me to invite anyone to use the question and answer function on Zoom to submit a question at any time.

[0:53:52] Voice 9: and also if you belong to a community monitoring group on gabriel or some some other island can

[0:53:59] Voice 9: you can also just plunk that into the question and answer if you'd like just to introduce uh

[0:54:04] Voice 9: the group that you're involved with and so without further ado i'm going to um turn it over to uh

[0:54:12] Voice 9: sylvia thank you thank

[0:54:15] Voice 13: you um so chloe's gonna set up the uh powerpoint for me there and i'll

[0:54:22] Voice 13: I'll ask her to forward the slides.

[0:54:25] Voice 13: Can you hear me okay, volume wise?

[0:54:30] Voice 13: That's good, okay.

[0:54:31] Voice 13: All right, so that was so interesting to see

[0:54:35] Voice 13: the breadth of different types of monitoring activities

[0:54:38] Voice 13: and approaches that are being undertaken

[0:54:41] Voice 13: in regional district of Nanaimo

[0:54:43] Voice 13: and in Eastern Vancouver Island.

[0:54:45] Voice 13: And it's exciting both in the way local governments

[0:54:51] Voice 13: and provincial governments are facilitating

[0:54:54] Voice 13: data collection and understanding about water resources within their community.

[0:55:00] Voice 13: So to focus in somewhat on the Gabriola situation, I wanted to talk more about the water resources,

[0:55:09] Voice 13: some of the types of hazards and the monitoring options that could be implemented on Gabriola Island.

[0:55:20] Voice 13: And Chloe, do you want to restart the presentation and forward the slide?

[0:55:34] Voice 13: All right.

[0:55:35] Voice 13: So I wanted to briefly give us an understanding or my objectives for this workshop or this

[0:55:42] Voice 13: part of the workshop was for us to develop an understanding of how freshwater monitoring

[0:55:47] Voice 13: could improve our understanding and management of freshwater resources, to talk about some

[0:55:52] Voice 13: of the hazards and challenges facing freshwater sustainability on Gabriola and Gulf Islands and

[0:55:59] Voice 13: Vancouver Island, including things like aquifer stress, climate change and sea water intrusion,

[0:56:05] Voice 13: give an overview of the current monitoring networks that are in operation on Gabriola Island

[0:56:11] Voice 13: and talk about monitoring data gaps and opportunities. And this will

[0:56:19] Voice 13: will bridge us into a larger discussion with the group

[0:56:23] Voice 13: and attendees present here today.

[0:56:27] Voice 13: Next slide.

[0:56:30] Voice 13: So this workshop is being undertaken as part

[0:56:33] Voice 13: of the Islands Trust Freshwater Footprint Project,

[0:56:36] Voice 13: which GW Solutions has been involved with

[0:56:41] Voice 13: working with Islands Trust

[0:56:42] Voice 13: and as a component of the Gabriela Island

[0:56:48] Voice 13: official community plan revision process.

[0:56:53] Voice 13: So the project has a technical component

[0:56:56] Voice 13: which is involving a compilation of existing data,

[0:57:00] Voice 13: updating water balance for the island

[0:57:03] Voice 13: and evaluating for stress and vulnerabilities

[0:57:08] Voice 13: to the hazards that we've talked about,

[0:57:10] Voice 13: what I've already mentioned.

[0:57:12] Voice 13: Another piece of it is to try to look at

[0:57:16] Voice 13: what would it entail to develop an assessment of the water footprint on the island, which could

[0:57:23] Voice 13: be a more holistic measure of sustainability and provide us with indicators, thresholds,

[0:57:31] Voice 13: or objectives that we can work toward to ensure protection, restoration, and maintenance and

[0:57:39] Voice 13: sustainability of our freshwater ecosystems and water sources. And then an important part is to

[0:57:45] Voice 13: to have community involvement in the development of this methodology

[0:57:52] Voice 13: and to bring folks along into the understanding of what the risks that we face

[0:57:59] Voice 13: in terms of freshwater sustainability on the island and the opportunities that exist.

[0:58:03] Voice 13: So that's what this workshop is, the first of three workshops

[0:58:07] Voice 13: that are to be undertaken as part of the project.

[0:58:10] Voice 13: Next slide.

[0:58:13] Voice 13: So when we're talking about freshwater resources on Gabriel,

[0:58:16] Voice 13: Gabrielle Island, the primary water source for water supply, including domestic, commercial and

[0:58:23] Voice 13: industrial use, is from drilled wells. There's more than 2,700 registered wells in the GWELS

[0:58:31] Voice 13: database for the island. And the water source for the island are aquifers that are consisting

[0:58:38] Voice 13: of fractured sedimentary bedrock. So we're talking about sandstone and shale deposits.

[0:58:43] Voice 13: deposits. As these types of aquifers are associated typically with fairly low well yields

[0:58:53] Voice 13: and some low to moderate well yields and they have limited storage capacity so it affects the

[0:59:00] Voice 13: productivity of the wells and availability of water for different uses. The water is stored

[0:59:06] Voice 13: within fractures and faults and and vacancies within the the rock itself and you can have

[0:59:14] Voice 13: both contact surfaces between sandstone and shale beds or as i said gouge or fractured

[0:59:21] Voice 13: zones that will hold water and transmit it to wells when they're drilled into those deposits

[0:59:27] Voice 13: the recharge is from both from diffuse precipitation over the island the footprint

[0:59:34] Voice 13: of the island as well as from focus recharge into these types of geologic features like

[0:59:39] Voice 13: faults that are where they're exposed on the land surface or where they underlie wetlands or other

[0:59:47] Voice 13: drainage features and all the water on the island is essentially a freshwater lens

[0:59:52] Voice 13: lands that overlie saline water in the surrounding ocean and below the island.

[1:00:00] Voice 13: And so, the aquifer also is under overlaying by fairly thin layers of soil and overburden materials.

[1:00:08] Voice 13: So they're quite vulnerable to contamination, and because of the low yield and limited supply, can be vulnerable to climate change, as well as to seawater intrusion.

[1:00:19] Voice 13: Next slide.

[1:00:23] Voice 13: In terms of surface water, most of the watersheds on the island are very small.

[1:00:29] Voice 13: small zero first and second order streams that drain to the coast there are some wetlands and

[1:00:38] Voice 13: small lakes as I understand many of the streams are ephemeral they flow seasonally and they dry

[1:00:47] Voice 13: up in summer and of course they're vulnerable to changes in land use and drainage patterns

[1:00:54] Voice 13: climate change and contamination from runoff and eutrophication.

[1:00:59] Voice 13: Next slide.

[1:01:02] Voice 13: So when we think about groundwater management,

[1:01:07] Voice 13: one of the, rather than aquifer scale,

[1:01:11] Voice 13: it's sometimes more useful to think about groundwater regions.

[1:01:14] Voice 13: So there are 11 groundwater regions which have been established

[1:01:18] Voice 13: for the island, which roughly correspond with watersheds

[1:01:21] Voice 13: or drainage basins that drain towards different parts

[1:01:25] Voice 13: parts of the island.

[1:01:27] Voice 13: And so you can see that there are some larger central regions and then smaller ones that

[1:01:35] Voice 13: border the island.

[1:01:36] Voice 13: And those are used as the base unit for evaluation of water availability, supply and impacts

[1:01:44] Voice 13: and other analyses that we're undertaking.

[1:01:47] Voice 13: This map just gives an overview of the registered wells on the island.

[1:01:55] Voice 13: So you can see that there are areas of fairly low well density in the center of the island, and then you can have developed areas for very, very high well density, in particular along the coast.

[1:02:08] Voice 13: The purple dots represent water supply systems, which on Gabriola mostly are small, one and probably maximum 15 connection water supply systems that are permitted to operate through Island Health.

[1:02:25] Voice 13: And these can range from small commercial facilities, restaurants, hotels and clinics, those types of commercial, industrial and institutional water supply systems.

[1:02:46] Voice 13: But there are no major service areas on the island or municipal type water supply or improvement districts.

[1:02:53] Voice 13: So, when it comes to domestic water supply, it's mainly from private individual wells and, in some cases, shared wells.

[1:03:03] Voice 13: The coloured fill represents the vulnerability of the aquifer to seawater intrusion.

[1:03:13] Voice 13: So you can see that some areas, in particular on the northwest part of the island, have a fairly moderate to higher risk of intrusion of seawater.

[1:03:24] Voice 13: And therefore, that should be something that we can think about when we're thinking about monitoring networks and data collection.

[1:03:32] Voice 13: Next slide.

[1:03:35] Voice 13: This is some of the work that has been done to look at recharge potential or the ability of rainfall, if it were to land on the ground surface, its ability to infiltrate and contribute to groundwater recharge.

[1:03:50] Voice 13: So you can see that in the center and higher elevation areas of the island are more likely

[1:03:56] Voice 13: to be where groundwater is going to infiltrate and become groundwater recharge, whereas on

[1:04:01] Voice 13: the coastal margins and lowland areas, those have lower groundwater recharge potential

[1:04:07] Voice 13: and are more likely to be discharge zones.

[1:04:11] Voice 13: Next slide.

[1:04:14] Voice 13: So when we're thinking about groundwater monitoring methods, we can measure several things.

[1:04:19] Voice 13: So we've already had a really good overview of what that looks like in terms of monitoring of groundwater sources, for example, monitoring groundwater level within the well.

[1:04:31] Voice 13: We can also measure water use or demand in the streams, as Ali and Sarah have talked about.

[1:04:38] Voice 13: we can measure level or discharge or flow and of course if we have climate stations or weather

[1:04:46] Voice 13: stations we can measure parameters associated with that temperature precipitation evapotranspiration

[1:04:53] Voice 13: and those are really useful for water balance model development on the quality side

[1:05:00] Voice 13: the monitoring can range from simple field parameters that are measured with say a

[1:05:06] Voice 13: handheld unit such as temperature, pH, or electrical conductivity. That can be done

[1:05:12] Voice 13: with these simple devices and doesn't require a lab test. And then we can have other tests that

[1:05:18] Voice 13: are required to where we need to send a sample into a lab. So microbiologies, testing for

[1:05:25] Voice 13: bacteria or viruses, geochemistry, including metals or major ions, drinking water probability,

[1:05:34] Voice 13: and then specialized sampling, including isotopes, hydrocarbons, or

[1:05:39] Voice 13: contaminants. And I would say that probably on the last three of those

[1:05:44] Voice 13: are typically not done on a standard monitoring

[1:05:48] Voice 13: network scale and may be used for more specialized studies next time.

[1:05:56] Voice 13: So why would we want to do monitoring or measurements of

[1:06:00] Voice 13: these types of things? So the first is that we want to understand environmental conditions.

[1:06:05] Voice 13: So we want to develop an understanding of what the background or ambient conditions are.

[1:06:12] Voice 13: On the groundwater side, we might want to see what's happening in terms of groundwater conditions in recharge areas versus in a discharge area.

[1:06:21] Voice 13: When we're thinking about freshwater ecosystems in a more holistic way, we can characterize the relationship between surface and groundwater by doing monitoring.

[1:06:35] Voice 13: For example, looking at the timing of flow and precipitation, the presence of base flow following long dry seasons, for example, often indicates a groundwater influence.

[1:06:49] Voice 13: influence. So we can look at those seasonal patterns and variations and try to understand

[1:06:54] Voice 13: what is happening within those systems. And then it's also important for us to be able to evaluate

[1:07:00] Voice 13: change over time. So both Erica and Ali talked about how when we conduct monitoring, the longer

[1:07:06] Voice 13: we monitor for, we get more out of it. We start to develop an understanding. Also, we can see where

[1:07:12] Voice 13: changes are starting to occur, whether that's due to climate change or long-term climatic

[1:07:21] Voice 13: cycles like the Pacific Decadal Oscillation or impacts of water use or changes in land use.

[1:07:29] Voice 13: And then from a user perspective, it's really important to monitor to be able to better manage

[1:07:36] Voice 13: our water sources. So an individual well owner may want to collect information to help them

[1:07:42] Voice 13: know whether water is suitable for use, if it's potable, to identify if they need to be

[1:07:49] Voice 13: undertaking any kind of repairs to their well. If you have an agricultural well or a farm well,

[1:07:56] Voice 13: then it's your livelihood to have water. So you may want to be able to optimize their pumping

[1:08:02] Voice 13: and irrigation use and make sure that you have adequate quantity to cover your irrigation demands.

[1:08:09] Voice 13: Water systems monitor to be able to manage their supply and demand, to communicate with their users.

[1:08:17] Voice 13: They are required through their operational permits to ensure that water that they provide is safe for the users.

[1:08:26] Voice 13: And it's really helpful for water systems to monitor, to identify early whether there are problems with their water source.

[1:08:34] Voice 13: For example, declining well capacity, leak as it happened, water quality concerns, and to ensure that they're prepared for a drought and to respond to periods of water shortage if those occur.

[1:08:48] Voice 13: And then there may be monitoring as a result of water license terms and conditions, either surface or groundwater license for non-domestic use.

[1:08:58] Voice 13: use. And of course, monitoring helps us to manage and look at the watershed and identify

[1:09:06] Voice 13: the sort of regional trends and concerns. Next. So how much cost or effort that is involved

[1:09:15] Voice 13: in monitoring really depends on the purpose and intended use of the data. So it can range

[1:09:21] Voice 13: from everything from fairly simple things that a domestic well owner can do, like measure

[1:09:27] Voice 13: how much water they use by by looking at their changes in their tank volume. They can make note

[1:09:33] Voice 13: of qualitative things like if they notice a change in the smell or taste of the water

[1:09:38] Voice 13: and they can do water quality testing. At the domestic level oftentimes water level

[1:09:46] Voice 13: measurements are not taken typically because of either cost things or knowledge or

[1:09:55] Voice 13: or maybe there isn't a need.

[1:09:58] Voice 13: There's a small number of users reliant on that source.

[1:10:01] Voice 13: And so if something,

[1:10:02] Voice 13: and if they have to go to another source,

[1:10:05] Voice 13: it's not as significant compared to a well

[1:10:10] Voice 13: that is serving a municipality.

[1:10:14] Voice 13: At the small water system side,

[1:10:16] Voice 13: I think that when I think about Gabriola,

[1:10:19] Voice 13: I would love to see small water systems

[1:10:22] Voice 13: undertaking more monitoring.

[1:10:23] Voice 13: monitoring. So water use is sometimes measured through metering or you can do proxy measurements

[1:10:34] Voice 13: through looking at tank volumes and such. Water quality measurements and using field

[1:10:40] Voice 13: parameters can be measured. The island health or health authority will typically require

[1:10:47] Voice 13: require testing, fairly frequent testing for bacteria,

[1:10:52] Voice 13: but geochemistry is done on a less frequent basis.

[1:10:55] Voice 13: And Stacey Soa is here from Island Taliesin.

[1:10:57] Voice 13: She can answer any questions about that after in the Q&A.

[1:11:04] Voice 13: But, and then, so I would say there's some opportunities

[1:11:10] Voice 13: there definitely to think about water level measurement

[1:11:14] Voice 13: and measurement of things like electrical conductivity

[1:11:18] Voice 13: that could indicate if there's saltwater intrusion concerns.

[1:11:23] Voice 13: At the municipal scale, those municipal water systems

[1:11:27] Voice 13: typically have a more enhanced monitoring system in place.

[1:11:32] Voice 13: They have a higher budget and a higher population that they're serving,

[1:11:36] Voice 13: so they need to make sure that there's adequate supply

[1:11:40] Voice 13: and that's continuing on.

[1:11:42] Voice 13: on. And so they can provide a guide of sort of the higher level of effort. But still, you know,

[1:11:50] Voice 13: simple data collection using a data logger doesn't have to break the bank. The technology is

[1:11:55] Voice 13: improving all the time, and it's more and more feasible for this type of work to be done. Yeah,

[1:12:00] Voice 13: you can go ahead. Next one. All right. So we've already talked about the observation,

[1:12:13] Voice 13: the Provincial Observation Well Network,

[1:12:16] Voice 13: I think a little bit, Erica mentioned that,

[1:12:19] Voice 13: and that is operated by Ministry of Environment and Parks

[1:12:24] Voice 13: and Ministry of Water and Land Resource Stewardship.

[1:12:27] Voice 13: There's four active observation wells on Gabriel Island

[1:12:31] Voice 13: and the Regional District of Nanaimo

[1:12:32] Voice 13: has two of the volunteer observation wells.

[1:12:37] Voice 13: As far as I understand, there's no water survey of Canada

[1:12:40] Voice 13: or provincial gauging stations on the island,

[1:12:43] Voice 13: but there are some monitoring activities that are being undertaken by local groups including

[1:12:50] Voice 13: Gabriel Orland and Trails Society. Next slide. So that gives you an idea of some of the monitoring

[1:12:59] Voice 13: locations including two historical hydrometric stations with the triangles and the blue wells

[1:13:06] Voice 13: representing actively monitored provincial observation wells and the four volunteer

[1:13:12] Voice 13: observation well locations. You can see that there is a good distribution of monitoring locations,

[1:13:19] Voice 13: especially once we consider the addition of the RDN volunteer wells, but there are some areas

[1:13:26] Voice 13: where we lack data and those are in particular in areas where there's high well density and higher

[1:13:31] Voice 13: risk of things like intrusion. Next slide. Here's some of what the groundwater monitoring data can

[1:13:41] Voice 13: can look like. So the provincial observation wells are dedicated wells. They have the data

[1:13:46] Voice 13: logger that measures groundwater level and temperature, hourly readings. Several of the

[1:13:54] Voice 13: wells have telemetry for real-time data communication, and the data are published on Aquarius.

[1:14:00] Voice 13: The two wells down at the bottom are the data from the volunteer observation well network.

[1:14:07] Voice 13: you can see that there's been a they were established in later in comparison to some

[1:14:14] Voice 13: of the long-standing wells on the island and you can also see that in that in some ways the data

[1:14:19] Voice 13: signal is a little bit more what we call noisy so it's a little more jagged the hydrograph

[1:14:25] Voice 13: reflecting that the wells are in use but you can see these types of long-term trends

[1:14:29] Voice 13: and that on the island in general the within the monitoring wells that are currently active

[1:14:36] Voice 13: we have stable trends with the exception of some wells such as what observation model 197 which

[1:14:44] Voice 13: shows that it may have had some decline next slide uh this just shows uh some of the monitoring that

[1:14:55] Voice 13: i believe that is being undertaken at mallet creek and it'll be interesting to hear from

[1:14:59] Voice 13: local groups and about the type of work that they're undertaking next slide so what types

[1:15:07] Voice 13: of hazards that we would want to be aware of. So in terms of water quality, of course, within the

[1:15:15] Voice 13: bedrock setting, so I'm focusing mostly on the groundwater side, we have natural contaminants

[1:15:21] Voice 13: like iron, manganese, fluoride, and arsenic that are present in these fractured sedimentary bedrock

[1:15:28] Voice 13: type aquifers. Contamination sources mainly include non-point sources or diffuse sources,

[1:15:36] Voice 13: as things like septic system discharges, agricultural waste,

[1:15:40] Voice 13: and those can increase concentrations

[1:15:42] Voice 13: of nitrate and phosphorus or contribute bacteria pathogens

[1:15:46] Voice 13: into groundwater recharge.

[1:15:50] Voice 13: Seawater intrusion, as I've mentioned,

[1:15:52] Voice 13: is a significant risk on the island.

[1:15:55] Voice 13: And that can be indicated by an increase in salinity

[1:15:58] Voice 13: and compared to background concentrations.

[1:16:01] Voice 13: And seawater intrusion, in addition

[1:16:03] Voice 13: to showing that occurring due to natural vulnerability of the aquifer, it can be an

[1:16:10] Voice 13: indicator that there's been unsustainable use. From the quantity side, the hazards that we might

[1:16:17] Voice 13: experience are locations or areas where demand is exceeding the supply. There can be deepening

[1:16:25] Voice 13: of groundwater levels as a result of groundwater pumping. And then, of course, we have a seasonal

[1:16:31] Voice 13: own deficit because of our short wet season and long dry season which the length of which is

[1:16:37] Voice 13: increasing with climate change um climate change and drought are things that we need to consider

[1:16:44] Voice 13: within the groundwater setting and overall um so we're seeing already changes in the time and

[1:16:51] Voice 13: amount of recharge that is occurring um it can increase transfer evapotranspiration rates and

[1:16:56] Voice 13: we're seeing these very long dry seasons which we have to manage with the storage that has been

[1:17:02] Voice 13: accumulated over the winter period. In the seawater intrusion case of the quantity side,

[1:17:10] Voice 13: that can occur as a result of deepening of groundwater levels, for example pumping

[1:17:14] Voice 13: groundwater levels below sea level. Next slide. So this is just some data showing sort of long-term

[1:17:22] Voice 13: precipitation data from the Manoa City Yard.

[1:17:26] Voice 13: So we can see that overall we are getting, although precipitation is variable,

[1:17:34] Voice 13: there does seem to be an overall annual decrease in annual precipitation.

[1:17:39] Voice 13: And definitely we see less precipitation within the summer period.

[1:17:46] Voice 13: Next slide.

[1:17:49] Voice 13: This slide also shows the trends in precipitation, monthly trends in precipitation. So you can see

[1:17:57] Voice 13: that there's a downward trend in the volume of precipitation received on a monthly basis

[1:18:02] Voice 13: for in this data set from 1970 to 2023 with the exception of January. So we may have some

[1:18:10] Voice 13: winter months where we have higher precipitation but overall during the year we're seeing lower

[1:18:15] Voice 13: trend toward lower precipitation. Next slide. So a little bit about saltwater intrusion and

[1:18:24] Voice 13: its mechanisms. So as I've mentioned, the seawater in an island setting, freshwater

[1:18:31] Voice 13: has low density and it sits as a lens overlying groundwater with a higher density. There's a

[1:18:39] Voice 13: transition zone in which there's transition between the fresh and saline water at depth,

[1:18:46] Voice 13: And that transition zone can vary both seasonally in response to precipitation and recharge and discharge patterns, as well as tidal flux and other events.

[1:19:02] Voice 13: With the climate change we are expecting potentially increase in sea water intrusion

[1:19:08] Voice 13: hazard and risk both due to sea level rise, increased anticipation of storm surges and

[1:19:14] Voice 13: overtopping or wave overtopping events which introduce in water above the aquifer as well.

[1:19:23] Voice 13: Well drilling can impact or contribute to sea water intrusion for example if wells are drilled

[1:19:31] Voice 13: build deeper into the saline zone or intercepting saline and interconnecting fractures, which

[1:19:39] Voice 13: contain both saline and fresh water, where the well becomes a column for mixing between

[1:19:45] Voice 13: the two sources, as well as pumping effects.

[1:19:48] Voice 13: So if we over pump or in areas where there's high density of wells, that can cause movement

[1:19:56] Voice 13: movement upward or inland of that freshwater saline water interface. Next slide. When we're

[1:20:04] Voice 13: thinking about water quality indicators for intrusion, we speak in terms of operational

[1:20:11] Voice 13: thresholds. So total dissolved solids of 700 milligrams per liter, electrical conductivity

[1:20:17] Voice 13: of 1,000 microseconds per centimeter, or chloride of 150 milligrams per liter is considered a

[1:20:23] Voice 13: on a threshold indicating that the well may be impacted

[1:20:28] Voice 13: by seawater intrusion.

[1:20:30] Voice 13: And this level is the level at which you might start

[1:20:34] Voice 13: to investigate the potential causes of intrusion

[1:20:38] Voice 13: or whether the well is being impacted and why.

[1:20:43] Voice 13: In comparison, the guidance for drinking water quality

[1:20:46] Voice 13: is slightly higher.

[1:20:47] Voice 13: And for example, 250 milligrams per liter chloride.

[1:20:52] Voice 13: And at that concentration, the water will have a noticeably salty taste.

[1:20:58] Voice 13: The lower thresholds are recommended because they're preventive and indicative.

[1:21:03] Voice 13: So action can be taken before significant impact has occurred.

[1:21:09] Voice 13: Next slide.

[1:21:13] Voice 13: So just to give some example of how we can use data to understand what is happening in terms of impacts.

[1:21:20] Voice 13: impacts. This is an example of one of the regional district of Nanaimo volunteer observation

[1:21:26] Voice 13: malls located in Cedar Yellow Point. So it's not on Gabriel Island, but it's the same type

[1:21:31] Voice 13: of aquifer as we have on Gabriel Island. And the data logger has a logger that measures

[1:21:39] Voice 13: not only water elevation, but also electrical conductivity, which is an indicator of water

[1:21:43] Voice 13: system salinity and what we observed from the patterns of monitoring over a long time period

[1:21:50] Voice 13: over a decade in time period is that as the groundwater pumping level declines below sea level

[1:21:56] Voice 13: we have an increase in electrical conductivity so we may see similar things if we would be

[1:22:03] Voice 13: undertaking this type of monitoring on vabriola um this site is located um about 25 meters from

[1:22:10] Voice 13: the seashore. So that's important. And it's a domestic well, so it's low water use. Next slide.

[1:22:17] Voice 13: So here's another one from the same aquifer, which is a water supply system well, and they've had

[1:22:23] Voice 13: long-term monitoring of chloride. Interestingly, this well is located 375 meters from the shore,

[1:22:32] Voice 13: so it's not what you would typically think of waterfront property. But yet, over time,

[1:22:38] Voice 13: as a result of continual use of the well and the chloride trend has been slowly increasing

[1:22:46] Voice 13: and it's approaching that operational threshold that we talked about the good thing is that

[1:22:53] Voice 13: because they undertake monitoring they've been able to communicate with their water users and to

[1:22:57] Voice 13: to get them to reduce demand and that has somewhat improved the water quality so that again shows the

[1:23:05] Voice 13: value of monitoring things like water use and the water quality next slide so um the honest

[1:23:15] Voice 13: trust produced the freshwater sustainability strategy in 2021 and improved data management

[1:23:21] Voice 13: monitoring and inventory of water resources have been were highlighted as key uh actions to be

[1:23:29] Voice 13: undertaken as part of the freshwater strategy. Also, in relation to these official community

[1:23:38] Voice 13: plan processes, the effort or the intention is to try to integrate water availability and

[1:23:44] Voice 13: vulnerability information into land use decisions and policies and regulations. So that's an

[1:23:50] Voice 13: important piece and as Erika alluded to that connection of science to behavior and to changes

[1:24:00] Voice 13: in policy or actions. Next slide. So when we're thinking about data gaps on Gabriela Island I

[1:24:11] Voice 13: think that it becomes present that in terms of water quality we actually have fairly limited

[1:24:18] Voice 13: data collection at present. And I think that that's one of the key things that we have an

[1:24:23] Voice 13: opportunity to improve, in particular through the small water systems and the data that are

[1:24:31] Voice 13: collected as part of their operations. Also, I think that it would be useful to have more

[1:24:38] Voice 13: groundwater monitoring near the coast and in areas of high well density, and that's been highlighted

[1:24:42] Voice 13: by many community members as well surface water it I think that having some input from local

[1:24:52] Voice 13: stream keepers and the folks involved in terms of what the needs are for monitoring at that level

[1:24:59] Voice 13: would be really helpful to to understand what the possibilities are there and water demand data

[1:25:07] Voice 13: data is something that across the board, across the province of BC, and in many areas, it's

[1:25:14] Voice 13: often one of the biggest data gaps that we face and it hinders our ability to really

[1:25:19] Voice 13: understand where water is being used and how much and to be able to educate or change behavior.

[1:25:29] Voice 13: Some of the things that we need to consider are some of the things that have mentioned

[1:25:32] Voice 13: be already particular the standards for better quality that we want to collect

[1:25:38] Voice 13: the need for review and quality assurance and quality control of the data where that data gets

[1:25:45] Voice 13: housed and things like privacy concerns there's lots of examples of public data places where data

[1:25:53] Voice 13: are shared including the aquarius where the peagone data and the volunteer observation

[1:25:57] Voice 13: Conservation Law Network data are stored.

[1:26:00] Voice 13: Living Lakes is another program from the Kootenays

[1:26:03] Voice 13: that store their data on Aquarius.

[1:26:06] Voice 13: Depth of Water is a program that GW Solutions has developed

[1:26:10] Voice 13: for data management.

[1:26:12] Voice 13: And then there's some public open data source programs

[1:26:17] Voice 13: like DataStream.

[1:26:19] Voice 13: And a really neat example is the Saltwater Island

[1:26:21] Voice 13: or Salt Spring Island Freshwater Catalog

[1:26:24] Voice 13: and the data that they're collecting and sharing.

[1:26:26] Voice 13: So next slide for that. So this is really cool. The Pacific Data Stream funded by the Gordon Foundation.

[1:26:35] Voice 13: You can see that there's numerous sites on Salt Spring Island, sort of on the central right part of the screen.

[1:26:44] Voice 13: And those are data that are collected by community groups, including, you know, field parameters,

[1:26:50] Voice 13: temperature and flow, and they're contributing into their knowledge and those data can be

[1:26:56] Voice 13: downloaded and used by other researchers or folks working in the area.

[1:27:04] Voice 13: So we've gone much longer than we anticipated to our question and answer session.

[1:27:11] Voice 13: I'm not sure if we want to take a break or whether we want to launch into our panel.

[1:27:16] Voice 13: To get us started, we had some questions here and William, maybe our panelists will join

[1:27:23] Voice 13: back up?

[1:27:24] Voice 9: Yeah I think we can it's three minutes to 5 30 so we could just take a short three to

[1:27:32] Voice 9: five minute break and then get the panelists on and stop screen sharing and we can get into the

[1:27:38] Voice 9: question and answer session. Nice.

[1:27:45] Voice 9: And yeah please if you do have a question you can put it into the

[1:27:52] Voice 9: question and answer um component of zoom we've had some come in so i know that's working yeah

[1:28:06] Voice 13: maybe we could start like at 5 30 does that make sense two

[1:28:11] Voice 4: minutes yeah i would

[1:28:15] Voice 13: be interested to

[1:28:16] Voice 13: know um in the chat uh on the q a um where folks are coming from and you know the things that folks

[1:28:32] Voice 13: are involved in or oh i see that thanks for confirming that this the uh water use survey

[1:29:06] Voice 13: has been extended yeah

[1:29:10] Voice 9: so the oh there's a little bit of feedback um the water use survey has been

[1:29:17] Voice 9: extended to uh may

[1:29:18] Voice 13: 20th that's good to know yeah

[1:29:21] Voice 9: and and yeah um i think sylvia i i'll run this

[1:29:28] Voice 9: idea by you in real time but i people can put question answers in the chat but there's also

[1:29:33] Voice 9: a function that people can also speak their questions and that um that might be effective

[1:29:38] Voice 9: so um if someone would like to um ask a question um by microphone you can raise your hand and

[1:29:50] Voice 9: chloe behind the scenes will make it happen um and i i encourage you to keep the questions brief

[1:29:57] Voice 9: so we can have enough time for that.

[1:30:01] Voice 9: answer from the panelists. There has been several questions that have been sent in so I think we'll

[1:30:07] Voice 9: start with those and then we can move on to audible questions after we get through a bunch of

[1:30:14] Voice 9: text questions.

[1:30:17] Voice 4: Sure and

[1:30:31] Voice 13: are we going to use any of those ones from the presentation? Do we want

[1:30:36] Voice 13: on a show with us or something

[1:30:38] Voice 9: uh yeah i i think i will like ask them i i've i have them in the queue

[1:30:43] Voice 9: yeah well i think that we can get going hopefully i've had enough time for a little break and um

[1:31:02] Voice 9: yeah we have i will have a stop at at six o'clock so we have a good half an hour of

[1:31:08] Voice 9: question answers and um uh yeah should um i think everyone um has introduced

[1:31:18] Voice 9: themselves except for steven would you like to introduce yourself steven

[1:31:23] Voice 9: okay

[1:31:24] Voice 10: so

[1:31:26] Voice 13: i

[1:31:33] Voice 11: will introduce myself anyway um i i live on gabriola i have a well

[1:31:38] Voice 11: I drink water, but I've also done some research here on groundwater.

[1:31:43] Voice 11: This was about 20 years ago, but we did a regional groundwater sampling program looking at groundwater geochemistry.

[1:31:52] Voice 11: One of the focus of that was fluoride levels because there is an issue here.

[1:31:57] Voice 11: But we also looked for evidence of groundwater or saltwater intrusion at that time.

[1:32:03] Voice 11: and it would be an interesting exercise to take the wells that we sampled back in 2000

[1:32:10] Voice 11: whatever it was one or two and and see how they have changed in the 20 something years because

[1:32:18] Voice 11: we have that data from back then and you know we can we can relocate those samples

[1:32:24] Voice 11: the wells are probably still there anyway i'll leave it at that like

[1:32:31] Voice 13: that that sounds like a

[1:32:32] Voice 13: cool idea and

[1:32:37] Voice 9: uh and the other stephen oh

[1:32:40] Voice 10: yeah i'm not a water expert um but i'm a planner with

[1:32:45] Voice 10: islands trust and working on the gabriel official community plan review um with marissa chadwick

[1:32:50] Voice 10: another um planner and so so

[1:32:53] Voice 9: thanks for for letting me introduce myself yeah thanks for

[1:32:58] Voice 9: joining us today um very important component is to um connect uh this work with tonic services

[1:33:06] Voice 9: of course um is

[1:33:09] Voice 13: antonio still there oh

[1:33:12] Voice 9: yeah there he is yeah

[1:33:13] Voice 1: hello good afternoon uh antonio barroso

[1:33:16] Voice 1: i'm a hydro geologist and i'm working on the fresh water footprint with sylvia

[1:33:22] Voice 1: yeah great

[1:33:27] Voice 9: thank you for joining us antonio okay so um i i think we can get into a few

[1:33:35] Voice 9: kind of warm-up questions um from uh just on the uh a general like freshwater sustainability

[1:33:45] Voice 9: program perspective and this is one from the presentation that we had uh so what what are

[1:33:52] Voice 9: the most significant or important data gaps that um we need to fill to better uh have for for better

[1:34:02] Voice 9: freshwater management and protection um

[1:34:04] Voice 10: on

[1:34:05] Voice 9: gabriola and other islands

[1:34:11] Voice 13: i'm interested in steve

[1:34:14] Voice 13: like or someone who does the surface water stuff or um

[1:34:21] Voice 11: well i can answer part of that question

[1:34:23] Voice 11: for at least from my perspective there are three sources of water here on gabriel one is rainwater

[1:34:28] Voice 11: that people collect off their roofs uh the other is well water but there's also a significant amount

[1:34:34] Voice 11: of water that is trucked in from vancouver island and when i say significant i don't know how

[1:34:41] Voice 11: significant because we don't have any data on how much water is brought to gabriola where it's

[1:34:48] Voice 11: coming from and where it's going to and i think if we were able to start collecting that data

[1:34:53] Voice 11: um it would help us uh know how much water is coming in and and to what parts of the island

[1:35:01] Voice 11: it's going because those are areas that that have uh you know water issues um it also helps to know

[1:35:11] Voice 11: or will help to know where it comes from because there's no certainty that we can count on those

[1:35:19] Voice 11: sources of surface water on Vancouver Island, like the city of Nanaimo, into the future. They could

[1:35:25] Voice 11: stop providing water to Gabriela anytime they want. And so it's important for us to know about

[1:35:32] Voice 11: how much water is coming, where it's going, and when.

[1:35:44] Voice 13: Stacey, what it looks like here.

[1:35:47] Voice 6: Yeah, this is somewhere where I feel like there's not necessarily a gap, but like a gap in the

[1:35:53] Voice 6: connectivity of the data so like for example i i saw on your one of your slides sylvia about

[1:35:59] Voice 6: um you know the the types of water quality data that island health has access to but um you know

[1:36:07] Voice 6: making that publicly available or sharing it out even for um you know good work that's being done

[1:36:13] Voice 6: like the different projects that have been talked about here can be difficult because you know

[1:36:17] Voice 6: technically the the water system supplier owns the data like we use it to interpret um but we

[1:36:24] Voice 6: don't always have good ability to to share it out readily so it can be a little bit of a barrier so

[1:36:30] Voice 6: um you know having that more transparent accessibility to data would be really really

[1:36:36] Voice 6: key um and i i don't know it may be in in places like gabriela it might just be talking to operators

[1:36:42] Voice 6: and asking like are you open to this data being shared and let's just get it rolling rather than

[1:36:47] Voice 6: working through the red tape of FOI requests and everything so um you know like those data points

[1:36:54] Voice 6: are there and and to sort of highlight what Stephen's saying um you know we we have anecdotal

[1:37:00] Voice 6: information about you know over the last couple of years we know trucked water has has like doubled

[1:37:05] Voice 6: or tripled in terms of how much is going to to the island um I do think that the way that the

[1:37:11] Voice 6: the city of Nanaimo tracks, the fill station would likely allow us to see where the trucks

[1:37:17] Voice 6: are or which trucks are filling up and then where they're going.

[1:37:21] Voice 6: And I'm sure that we could coordinate that.

[1:37:23] Voice 6: But again, it's just one of those like it's just the lack of connectivity that we don't

[1:37:27] Voice 6: have that happening yet.

[1:37:28] Voice 6: So if we can get everybody on board with it, I think it would actually be fairly easy

[1:37:33] Voice 6: to get some of that data.

[1:37:36] Voice 6: data

[1:37:36] Voice 9: yeah on on salt spring we have um ferry cams on on our ferries and someone could just sit there

[1:37:44] Voice 9: all day and just count the trucks coming out the island there

[1:37:47] Voice 5: you go um

[1:37:47] Voice 9: yeah i i i um not not to

[1:37:52] Voice 9: divert um too much away from where water comes from and but i i like stacy was talking about

[1:37:59] Voice 9: about like how do we share data in that interface.

[1:38:02] Voice 9: And that brought me to some questions

[1:38:07] Voice 9: that were coming up during Erica's presentation

[1:38:10] Voice 9: and seeing all this data.

[1:38:12] Voice 9: And it looks like it's a mountain of data.

[1:38:15] Voice 9: And I imagine you can't take millions of data points

[1:38:18] Voice 9: and just throw it at the province and that works.

[1:38:21] Voice 9: So I was wondering like from like kind of source

[1:38:26] Voice 9: source of monitoring to its final destination where it's making decisions um can you speak a

[1:38:32] Voice 9: little bit to that intermediate part like does the RDN have their own way of managing all that

[1:38:38] Voice 9: data and then does it get processed and go to the province because I believe it was Sarah was

[1:38:44] Voice 9: speaking that some of the data in the real-time um program isn't uh completely vetted and I was

[1:38:53] Voice 9: just wondering how um the rdn works with that intermediate process thanks yeah

[1:39:01] Voice 2: that's such a

[1:39:02] Voice 2: good question william and it's something that i think each of our separate monitoring programs

[1:39:06] Voice 2: has very separate solutions for like i just highlighted today you know um in terms of

[1:39:12] Voice 2: groundwater data um and and and how we manage that a little bit and our surface water quality

[1:39:18] Voice 2: data that's uploaded uploaded to the environmental monitoring system with the province which does

[1:39:24] Voice 2: need to be vetted and goes through a bit of a qaqc process but there's there's many more and kind of

[1:39:31] Voice 2: all the this like patchwork of sort of data management approaches we've taken over time

[1:39:36] Voice 2: like one of the monitoring programs i i didn't even really have time to mention is is we collect

[1:39:42] Voice 2: uh groundwater quality data through our rebate program so when when residents want to access

[1:39:48] Voice 2: um rebates for collective uh for understanding uh water quality in their wells they are able to you

[1:39:54] Voice 2: know check a little box to say they're comfortable with sharing that with us and that's all you know

[1:39:58] Voice 2: that's that's managed on like water tracks uh it's a external sort of database um so each of

[1:40:05] Voice 2: our programs uh monitoring programs kind of uh depending on sort of the costing out of it um

[1:40:09] Voice 2: and and things like that is has sort of uh kind of evolved to meet the needs and the growth of

[1:40:15] Voice 2: that particular monitoring program but it's certainly a challenge because i think that you

[1:40:19] Voice 2: know data management is it's it's an expensive endeavor um and and i think that um sarah you

[1:40:25] Voice 2: pointed out so so eloquently that you know data collection is a tiny sliver of of that and it's

[1:40:31] Voice 2: actually the processing of it and the managing of it and the sharing out that is often not really

[1:40:36] Voice 2: considered in that that full data to action cycle and and sometimes um yeah it's it's a bit of an

[1:40:42] Voice 2: invisible part of it so it's not as as easy and readily to fund sometimes or to bring people on

[1:40:47] Voice 2: board to partner with necessarily it's it's hard to explain to people um the the the complexity of

[1:40:52] Voice 2: that and the cost of it um and and all those types of things so um yeah sort of depends on each

[1:40:58] Voice 2: monitoring program but um yeah kind of has evolved with the program

[1:41:02] Voice 13: yeah i've often thought that with

[1:41:07] Voice 13: the islands and gabriel is somewhat of an exception because it's close relatively close to

[1:41:14] Voice 13: Vancouver Island and a larger community but I think that developing local networks and local

[1:41:23] Voice 13: champions that are involved in the work would be a cost savings in a lot of cases especially

[1:41:29] Voice 13: for islands like Saturna or Maine where it's very hard to get to. You see that in the provincial

[1:41:36] Voice 13: observational networks tend to be fairly sparse on those islands and there's very limited

[1:41:41] Voice 13: limited information that we have and you know similarly up north on Cortez and that sort of

[1:41:46] Voice 13: thing there's no monitoring so having local champions I think would benefit those type of

[1:41:52] Voice 13: monitoring programs if there was funding or something that could um keep it going you know

[1:42:00] Voice 13: uh

[1:42:10] Voice 9: Erica not to push the the um the envelope on this one but I I mean I'm I'm really interested

[1:42:19] Voice 9: interested in groundwater monitoring it because it's it's a continuous data set and it can generate

[1:42:24] Voice 9: a lot of information um a lot of data at one time and uh there there is a um a need for for local

[1:42:34] Voice 9: groundwater monitoring on the islands and and indeed the reason why the freshwater footprint

[1:42:39] Voice 9: project was chosen to have Gabriela as a case study is because of it's likely the most data-rich

[1:42:48] Voice 9: island in the Islands Trust area because of the Ardean's Drinking Water and Watershed

[1:42:53] Voice 9: Protection Program and other efforts on the island.

[1:42:57] Voice 9: So there aren't islands that have the regional district stepping up and doing the work or

[1:43:05] Voice 9: have the infrastructure to do so.

[1:43:07] Voice 9: So yeah, just my one question about that.

[1:43:10] Voice 9: So specifically to groundwater monitoring, is there like an intermediate program database that RDN has invested in that is facilitating, you know, a like moving the data to the province for further use in adjudicating water resources.

[1:43:29] Voice 9: But also, I noticed that you have really nice graphs. And I'm just wondering, are those graphs updated annually? And how is that process? Is it a big undertaking? Or because of the investment in software and stuff, it's kind of now being more streamlined because you're halfway through your 10-year plan. So, yeah, thanks.

[1:43:50] Voice 9: Yeah,

[1:43:51] Voice 2: no problem. Yeah, it's a good question. And I think that the evolution of it, I could actually even ask Antonio to jump in and speak to a little bit because I know he's been involved in some of this even longer than I have. But you know, when we initiated that program, a lot of the uploads that we were doing from our groundwater wells was just uploaded into Excel databases. And our poor monitoring coordinator had her computer crashing all the time trying to just visualize that data.

[1:44:14] Voice 2: So we did turn to an external consultant to sort of build a database management system for us to kind of house a lot of that.

[1:44:22] Voice 2: And so Sylvia pointed out the management system depth to water, which has been really advantageous for that.

[1:44:29] Voice 2: We also use Aquarius for kind of cleaning up some of that data to create those visualizations.

[1:44:34] Voice 2: But it's not, we don't have the capacity to do that on a continuous basis.

[1:44:38] Voice 2: some of those provincial observation wells you know they have telemetry associated with them so

[1:44:45] Voice 2: you're able to get that real-time data essentially of what you're you're seeing with those changes in

[1:44:50] Voice 2: groundwater but the nature of a volunteer observation well network it's been very expensive

[1:44:54] Voice 2: we can't really install telemetry in a lot of those systems so it requires really like boots

[1:44:59] Voice 2: on the ground people going out and doing those downloads and then you know uploading it into

[1:45:05] Voice 2: those databases and we really only do that visualization and clean up once a year so

[1:45:09] Voice 2: I mentioned in my presentation that kind of pre-summer groundwater level analysis it was

[1:45:13] Voice 2: identified that like that's the time of year that would be really good to share this information out

[1:45:18] Voice 2: across the region you know heading into that season so we kind of get that snapshot that can

[1:45:23] Voice 2: help inform some of those summer management decisions but you know the way we try to present

[1:45:29] Voice 2: that is looking at the full year behind us so that's kind of the way that we try to present

[1:45:34] Voice 2: it out but um i will say it's you know it's um it's uh the it's it's time intensive to produce

[1:45:41] Voice 2: those and and expensive from sort of a staff um time perspective um you know we've we've looked at

[1:45:47] Voice 2: the possibility of you know installing telemetry for example but it's not really feasible for those

[1:45:52] Voice 2: those wells and and you know even just like the cleanup as sylvia kind of showed um comparing

[1:45:57] Voice 2: those those you know provincial observation wells versus those pumped wells like cleaning up

[1:46:02] Voice 2: the data a little bit with with all that interference of every time you know someone

[1:46:05] Voice 2: flushes their toilet and the water level goes down that that shows up on those volunteer observation

[1:46:10] Voice 2: well hydrographs so you kind of have to clean that up so you can read it a little bit better but

[1:46:14] Voice 2: um yeah does that kind of answer your question a little bit about sort of the involvement and

[1:46:19] Voice 2: the and that data management sure

[1:46:21] Voice 9: yeah and and this is not just my questions i yeah there are

[1:46:25] Voice 9: some very interested parties um yeah their questions and and one of them um and one of

[1:46:30] Voice 9: the questions here is like you know this is a big monitoring program and this is for others in the

[1:46:36] Voice 9: panel that have the same these large monitoring programs i i know that i i've been on multi-million

[1:46:42] Voice 9: dollar monitoring programs that have disappeared like communal effects management association in

[1:46:46] Voice 9: alberta which is very sad and so what what are the biggest challenges for monitoring um network data

[1:46:54] Voice 9: collection and management and the longevity and i think that could be open to anyone on the panel

[1:47:03] Voice 2: Yeah, I could just jump in to sort of start. I think a big part of it is funding, you know, figuring out kind of who's going to hold the reins and establishing a long-term funding source.

[1:47:14] Voice 2: We've been really lucky with the RDN's DWP program. We're funded through like a parcel tax.

[1:47:20] Voice 2: So we have that longevity where we can kind of plan out for the future of how we're implementing that action plan and then kind of look at where we want to prioritize data collection and filling in those gaps over the long term.

[1:47:34] Voice 2: But yeah, funding is a big part. And then also, honestly, like volunteer burnout can be a big one as well, you know, or volunteers no longer able to contribute.

[1:47:45] Voice 2: We see like the volunteer base, especially in some of our surface water quality programs, you know, they're retired folks, and they tend to, after a certain point in time, they can't climb down into the streams necessarily and actually collect that data.

[1:47:59] Voice 2: So it's sort of who we're engaging in the community, and that sort of like long-term view can definitely be a challenge.

[1:48:06] Voice 2: But yeah, that's sort of what we see in our programs.

[1:48:08] Voice 2: But yeah, if anybody else has anything to add, for sure.

[1:48:13] Voice 8: Yeah, I'll jump in and definitely second what Erica said that funding is definitely kind of one of the major challenges associated with our program anyway, as well, like, especially kind of that longer term funding, because we can usually, you know, get one or two years kind of commitment from folks.

[1:48:31] Voice 8: but then you know longer than that it's really hard to plan and you know we have a lot of groups

[1:48:35] Voice 8: that are now kind of relying on us and we want to be able to expand and kind of make plans for the

[1:48:40] Voice 8: future and you know kind of not knowing how much you know what our sort of capacity is going to be

[1:48:45] Voice 8: like year to year can be definitely super challenging in that regard um and then yeah

[1:48:50] Voice 8: same kind of with the volunteer burnout like especially with something like surface flow

[1:48:55] Voice 8: monitoring that's you know fairly intensive um you know people do it for a few years but then

[1:49:01] Voice 8: And yeah, maybe they get older or maybe they, you know, have other interests that come up and they move on.

[1:49:05] Voice 8: And, you know, then we sort of have to train up new people.

[1:49:09] Voice 8: And so definitely kind of trying to recruit some sort of younger volunteers sometimes can be helpful.

[1:49:16] Voice 8: People who are maybe like a little more tech savvy and kind of interested in that side of it to sort of support older volunteers who may be less interested in that kind of side of it could be also very helpful.

[1:49:27] Voice 8: So we have been kind of trying to incorporate that a bit into our program of like ideas of how to kind of recruit new volunteers and specifically volunteers who are interested in flow.

[1:49:38] Voice 8: There are lots of volunteer groups who have lots of members, but maybe not all of them are super interested in flow or really, you know, maybe know how it's done and that type of thing.

[1:49:47] Voice 8: So, yeah, those are sort of the key challenges. And also because equipment's expensive, having funding to actually purchase things like flow trackers and stuff that we kind of use on a regular basis and need to be able to loan out is also really key.

[1:50:03] Voice 8: yeah

[1:50:07] Voice 9: thanks for that ali uh maybe a question um for you uh are there some monitoring strategies

[1:50:14] Voice 9: that can be easily implemented like that it doesn't really require like going to a equipment

[1:50:20] Voice 9: library or something like that sure

[1:50:22] Voice 8: yeah it really like kind of depends on what folks are

[1:50:26] Voice 8: interested like in terms of flow monitoring like um i know in gabriola there's maybe sort of fewer

[1:50:31] Voice 8: you know large streams like it I'm not super familiar with the with Gabriela to be honest but

[1:50:37] Voice 8: I believe it's more sort of smaller maybe more ephemeral streams that are definitely kind of

[1:50:42] Voice 8: more seasonal sort of monitoring that people are interested in so things like doing bucket fills

[1:50:49] Voice 8: we call them volumetric measurements where you can actually if you have a culvert or like a

[1:50:54] Voice 8: weir or step or something that you can actually like fit a bucket under and record the time it

[1:51:00] Voice 8: takes you to fill the bucket and then how much volume of water you're actually filling you can

[1:51:04] Voice 8: get pretty good discharge measurements that way actually we have a couple small streams that

[1:51:08] Voice 8: that's kind of the only way we can monitor them in the summer and we've tested it against the

[1:51:15] Voice 8: more expensive like equipment like flow trackers and actually got like incredibly similar results

[1:51:20] Voice 8: so they're pretty pretty you know good method to use and they really just require like a bucket

[1:51:26] Voice 8: at a stopwatch and a little bit of math and and you've got a discharge measurement and then there

[1:51:31] Voice 8: are things like installing flumes that you can do in smaller streams I'm not very experienced with

[1:51:36] Voice 8: those methods so Sarah maybe could speak to those but that's also something that folks have used in

[1:51:41] Voice 8: these kind of smaller streams for more seasonal kind of flow analysis yeah

[1:51:48] Voice 7: additionally depending

[1:51:49] Voice 7: if you're not necessarily interested in the number itself and more just to put more of like a

[1:51:54] Voice 7: a bit of an overall descriptor like just noting presence absence of flow and streams like putting

[1:51:59] Voice 7: trail cameras up and taking you know like a daily photo and seeing oh yeah this is when these streams

[1:52:05] Voice 7: have dried up it has that change through time over years some of that data can be very handy

[1:52:10] Voice 7: I think for these things where you know you do have a really small volume if you can't get good

[1:52:14] Voice 7: measurements so I think that's some things that people can do quite easily and yes with flumes

[1:52:19] Voice 7: they really just take a bit of effort to install them and then it's just coming by and taking small

[1:52:25] Voice 7: measurements and it's something that can be done easily and I know the province does have quite a

[1:52:28] Voice 7: few extra ones around if there are folks that do want to try it out that certainly can be lent out

[1:52:35] Voice 7: to folks so what

[1:52:39] Voice 13: about staff pages on some of the wetlands or things like that is that useful or

[1:52:47] Voice 7: I would assume the water levels through time I'm not I'm not an expert at lake levels or anything

[1:52:52] Voice 7: thing to that extent but very easy thing to install and it would take basically if you're

[1:53:00] Voice 7: just establishing maybe a benchmark network to make sure the staff gauge doesn't move

[1:53:03] Voice 7: again like just volunteers coming out and reading a staff gauge and there's many staff gauges

[1:53:08] Voice 7: available they can be very cheap it really costs very little like ten dollars for like a plastic

[1:53:13] Voice 7: one you know so those are definitely things that can happen and people can do very easily

[1:53:23] Voice 11: I'm concerned that

[1:53:25] Voice 11: in this climate of climate change

[1:53:27] Voice 11: we don't have enough weather data

[1:53:29] Voice 11: there was an Environment Canada

[1:53:32] Voice 11: weather station operating on Gabriela

[1:53:34] Voice 11: up until about 2017

[1:53:35] Voice 11: it's now shut down

[1:53:37] Voice 11: I noticed there was an RDN station

[1:53:40] Voice 11: down at the east end of the island

[1:53:41] Voice 11: I don't know anything about that

[1:53:43] Voice 11: maybe Erica can say something

[1:53:44] Voice 11: but there's nothing on the west end of Gabriela

[1:53:48] Voice 11: and so without any

[1:53:51] Voice 11: good credible credible climate data it's going to be hard for us to really understand

[1:53:59] Voice 11: water supply issues in the future

[1:54:02] Voice 4: yeah

[1:54:06] Voice 2: i can't comment on that one that may have been

[1:54:08] Voice 2: through parks but that's something we certainly see just kind of zooming out for like regional

[1:54:13] Voice 2: monitoring that that's been a consistent recommendation on our monitoring programs

[1:54:17] Voice 2: to get more weather data because we really live in a region where it can be very localized as well

[1:54:25] Voice 2: in terms of weather patterns so sometimes really hard to do that comparison of like when we have

[1:54:29] Voice 2: groups out taking like a turbidity measurement and things like that like was there a recent

[1:54:33] Voice 2: rainfall event in that particular area and if we're kind of comparing it to a weather station

[1:54:39] Voice 2: that's sort of like two basins away it could be actually a very different story so yeah certainly

[1:54:44] Voice 2: certainly agree and that's that's something we're kind of looking into a little bit as we kind of

[1:54:49] Voice 2: look at strategically planning out what we're doing with our monitoring programs of maybe

[1:54:55] Voice 2: collecting some of that weather data would be really advantageous to kind of calibrating against

[1:54:59] Voice 2: what we're seeing in stream flows and water quality as well.

[1:55:04] Voice 1: Just to add to that Steve

[1:55:07] Voice 1: that station actually is only a air temperature and barometric pressure doesn't doesn't have any

[1:55:15] Voice 1: other data and that data is used to compensate all the other volunteering observation wells in

[1:55:21] Voice 1: that area. Environment Canada will measure other parameters right rainfall and precipitation but

[1:55:27] Voice 1: the RDN station doesn't.

[1:55:32] Voice 11: Right and so the nearest weather station to Gabriola is

[1:55:35] Voice 11: on Entrance Island which is off the coast even further and it has quite a different climate

[1:55:40] Voice 11: it than we have here um we tried to get environment candidates to to keep that weather station that

[1:55:48] Voice 11: was here going but they refused um so if if somebody like rdn would be interested in creating

[1:55:56] Voice 11: a weather station i think it'd be really useful it's it's critical i think yeah

[1:56:01] Voice 13: and um oh i was

[1:56:04] Voice 13: going to say that uh the gw solutions has some experience installing this type of weather station

[1:56:11] Voice 13: in some remote areas on the west coast of Vancouver Island

[1:56:13] Voice 13: to augment federal systems for First Nations monitoring networks.

[1:56:18] Voice 13: And an observation was that often those networks,

[1:56:22] Voice 13: the Environment Canada networks, were at lower elevations.

[1:56:26] Voice 13: So having that higher elevation kind of upper watershed monitoring

[1:56:29] Voice 13: was critical and really needed to understand what was coming into the system.

[1:56:34] Voice 13: them.

[1:56:36] Voice 9: Yeah, that's a great point about where the weather stations are indeed. And also for

[1:56:45] Voice 9: groundwater monitoring, we've noticed on South Spring that monitoring the highlands and the

[1:56:49] Voice 9: lowlands was very effective in understanding the system as they operate very differently in the

[1:56:54] Voice 9: recharge and discharge area. So just a point of order here, we are a few minutes to the end of

[1:57:01] Voice 9: of our meeting and we do have one attendee

[1:57:05] Voice 9: that has their hand up, John,

[1:57:06] Voice 9: and we'll get to John in a second.

[1:57:08] Voice 9: I just wanted to, just to acknowledge

[1:57:11] Voice 9: that there has been a lot of questions

[1:57:13] Voice 9: about rainwater harvesting and policy

[1:57:17] Voice 9: and a lot around strategies around regulation of water

[1:57:23] Voice 9: and we appreciate those questions and we're logging them.

[1:57:26] Voice 9: We are having another workshop as part of this project on May 29th in person on Gabriela Island from 3.30 to 6.30 in the Heron Room at the Haven.

[1:57:41] Voice 9: in and and in that um workshop there will be the opportunity to engage in those kinds of

[1:57:48] Voice 9: of of questions uh we're we're naming the the workshop defining freshwater footprints so

[1:57:56] Voice 9: how how do we approach this and and so it's going to be questions that are more focused on that

[1:58:02] Voice 9: where where the intention of this um workshop was to be more focused on community monitoring

[1:58:08] Voice 9: and more of the technical nature of doing so.

[1:58:12] Voice 9: So before I close it out, we have John,

[1:58:15] Voice 9: if you would like to ask your question, go ahead.

[1:58:21] Voice 9: If you're still there.

[1:58:25] Voice 4: Can he be unmuted?

[1:58:27] Voice 4: I think

[1:58:30] Voice 9: he should be.

[1:58:31] Voice 9: Chloe, maybe you have to unmute him.

[1:58:34] Voice 9: Oh, so again, the time.

[1:58:37] Voice 9: Yeah, just thank you, John.

[1:58:39] Voice 9: I think you're ready to go.

[1:58:40] Voice 9: I just wanted to confirm the workshop is May 29th from 3.30 to 6.30 p.m. in the Heron Room at the

[1:58:48] Voice 9: Haven. Okay, go ahead, John.

[1:58:52] Voice 3: Well, first of all, I'd like to say whoever made all those maps,

[1:58:56] Voice 3: they're some fantastic maps that I've never seen before, and I would like to see some way to get

[1:59:02] Voice 3: them into public circulation on the island. Huge help. Secondly, there are some big problems

[1:59:10] Voice 3: in terms of changing conductivity

[1:59:14] Voice 3: in various different places.

[1:59:16] Voice 3: And there needs to be some discussion about

[1:59:18] Voice 3: is this saltwater intrusion

[1:59:20] Voice 3: or is this something else happening?

[1:59:22] Voice 3: What about the argument about old water?

[1:59:25] Voice 3: In many cases, I think we've drilled into pods of old water,

[1:59:29] Voice 3: but I don't know how to prove it.

[1:59:32] Voice 3: But when you have a salinity changing

[1:59:35] Voice 3: two kilometers from the ocean, why?

[1:59:41] Voice 13: Yeah, I'm aware of that too, and I do believe that there are some zones, for example, I've

[1:59:49] Voice 13: seen data in sort of village area where the wells are completed above sea level, so the

[1:59:57] Voice 13: the depth of the fractures.

[2:00:00] Voice 13: above sea level, but the wells are more saline and it is common within these aquifers both to have

[2:00:09] Voice 13: elevated salinity due to maturation, so interaction of the water with the rock materials,

[2:00:16] Voice 13: and also have zones of water that has been trapped in the formation during periods of higher sea

[2:00:24] Voice 13: level so after the last glacial period sea levels were over around 100 meters higher than at present

[2:00:32] Voice 13: so there is um potentially relic seawater trapped in formation so even if it's not an active process

[2:00:41] Voice 13: of drawing seawater into fractures at the coastal zone where we have elevated salinity or changes

[2:00:51] Voice 13: changes from fresh to saline conditions I think it is an indicator that there could be unsustainable

[2:00:59] Voice 13: use or impacts both of drilling into deeper zones or overuse or drawing down water levels so I agree

[2:01:06] Voice 13: with you John I think it's something that we need to examine further and and have more data to

[2:01:11] Voice 13: understand what's happening and one

[2:01:16] Voice 3: might come up with a possibility that would say you need a

[2:01:21] Voice 3: policy you can't drill deeper than a certain depth um

[2:01:26] Voice 9: yeah and john that's that's an interesting

[2:01:28] Voice 9: point um because the uh and and again we can just uh describe this more at the at the next workshop

[2:01:34] Voice 9: that um yeah that in in other jurisdictions there are drilling authorizations and like you said

[2:01:43] Voice 9: there are some some um licensing limits on how deep uh drills can go and and and those are really

[2:01:49] Voice 9: yeah interesting um you know perspectives on on the governance around groundwater that that

[2:01:56] Voice 9: doesn't exist in the water sustainability act or the or the groundwater protection regulation and

[2:02:01] Voice 9: and i and i think the water sustainability act is flexible enough to to grow over time and and

[2:02:07] Voice 9: incorporate those concerns with area-based regulations and we heard we've heard about

[2:02:11] Voice 9: that from from the province about area-based regulations and and um yeah they haven't really

[2:02:18] Voice 9: been implemented but it's a it's a possibility um we are out of time and i appreciate um everyone

[2:02:27] Voice 9: who has joined us today especially staff thank you for islands trust staff and thank you to the

[2:02:34] Voice 9: provincial staff regional district staff and and ngo staff and and residents and our consultants

[2:02:45] Voice 9: and so I really appreciate everyone who is involved in this and I think this is a great

[2:02:52] Voice 9: way to approach projects like this to try to get some diverse voices from the community and

[2:02:57] Voice 9: for us to share information and I think that all of the organizations on this panel

[2:03:06] Voice 9: do have that part of their mandate and this is great that we can coordinate that all together

[2:03:10] Voice 9: in one spot um so with that is there anyone else that would like to say something from the panel

[2:03:22] Voice 13: well you know i guess i'm curious about what this what we want to where we want to go from here

[2:03:28] Voice 13: but i guess those things those it's the start of a discussion i see it as at a start of a discussion

[2:03:34] Voice 13: rather than an end point and and i hope that we've inspired folks a little bit or got people's

[2:03:41] Voice 13: brains thinking about what the possibilities are and I really thank all of the presenters and

[2:03:50] Voice 13: very interesting information that was shared in particular with Erica, Ali and Sarah and

[2:04:01] Voice 13: yeah so and for people to take the time what if they're evening to come and listen to a talk

[2:04:08] Voice 13: about water and then maybe you can share um will this presentation be available uh that people can

[2:04:14] Voice 13: see it you know or maybe folks that hadn't weren't able to attend today yes

[2:04:19] Voice 9: presentation has been

[2:04:21] Voice 9: recorded and also um yeah the if the presenters allow their their powerpoints uh can be shared

[2:04:29] Voice 9: and um also since our next session on the 29th will be a longer forum that there there'll be a

[2:04:36] Voice 9: section where we can talk about how the community gets involved and and and i'm sure we'll talk

[2:04:40] Voice 9: about more of the the policy around trying to implement community uh watersheds and and and

[2:04:47] Voice 9: watershed monitoring and and and groundwater monitoring and hear from um local experience

[2:04:53] Voice 9: about that and i'm always interested in wetlands so looking forward to hearing the local perspective

[2:04:59] Voice 9: at our next um gathering so great yeah with that i i think we should uh honor our time

[2:05:07] Voice 9: five minutes over perfect um thank you so much everyone and uh have a wonderful evening

[2:05:14] Voice 9: thank

[2:05:15] Voice 6: you good night guys thank you