|
Fish
and Aquatic Communities
Results
of the Biological Inventory in Red Hill Valley
The
1995 aquatic examination was comprised of five separate
studies carried out by Shawn Staton: spawning surveys; fish
sampling; invertebrate sampling; habitat assessment; and
a brief search for trout fry.
Twenty
stations were sampled for fish species, and specimens of
benthic invertebrates were taken at six locations. Spawning
surveys ran for six weeks in the spring and five more in
the fall.
A
total of 18 species of fish were recorded in the survey,
eleven of which had not previously been reported from Red
Hill Creek. A McMaster study carried out this spring (1996)
confirmed many of the findings and also reported spawning
by northern pike in the Red Hill Marsh and the presence
of four additional species of fish, bringing the total number
to 22. Fifteen species were captured during the sampling,
while visual observations were made of northern pike and
brown trout, and extensive spawning activity of rainbow
trout was noted. Chinook salmon and white sucker spawning
was also observed. A particularly interesting catch in the
sampling surveys was a single chinook salmon smolt which
appears to have been naturally reproduced the previous fall
in Red Hill Creek (four more smolts were found in the McMaster
survey). The discovery of a single lake chub may indicate
a small spawning run of this species in the creek. The regionally
rare threespine stickleback also appears to breed in the
creek.
Benthic
sampling revealed a moderately high degree of organic pollution,
especially at the two sites above the escarpment. However,
the highest quality invertebrate community was found at
the site just below the escarpment, south of Kings Forest
Golf Course. While noting the organic pollution, the report
concluded that excessive stormwater flows are "the
most critical perturbation affecting the aquatic ecosystem
of Red Hill Creek." The high discharges are limiting
fish habitat and salmonid reproductive success and causing
extensive erosion and channel instability. Flows more than
250 times baseflow were recorded in an October 1995 storm.
Big
Chinook Salmon pulled from Red Hill Creek during spawning
in October.
Juvenile
Chinook Salmon, one of several caught in Red Hill Creek
in the spring.
Every fall Chinook Salmon are observed spawning in
the creek, and the following spring small salmon such
as this one can be found there.
Northern
Pike caught near Globe Park.
Each spring gravid pike move into Red Hill Marsh to
spawn. The planned widening and reconstruction of the
QEW to accommodate the Red Hill Creek Expressway would
destroy a significant portion of the marsh.
This
is a 37 inch Northern Pike!
Compare it to the shoe laying above it.
It was also caught and released in Red Hill Marsh. Government
officials have spent considerable dollars trying to re-establish
Pike spawning habitat in the west end of Hamilton Harbour,
while other government officials are trying hard to pave
over already existing habitat in Red Hill.
Action
Required to End Abuse of Fish
This
article below was issued as a flyer in October 1993 to explain
the barrier to fish migration built in 1990-1991 in Red
Hill Creek, under Queenston Road. The problem it describes,
however, continues to this day with the responsible governments
continuing to promise that it will be fixed when (and if)
the Red Hill Expressway is constructed.
As
described in the October 2nd issue of the Hamilton Spectator
("Red Hill Creek salmon ladder caught in funding fight",
page B3), the concrete channel constructed by the regional
government at Queenston Road continues to block fish migration
in Red Hill Creek.
We
are writing this letter to provide you with detailed information
on this situation so that you can press the regional, provincial
and federal governments for a proper solution. The addresses
and phone numbers of the responsible agencies are provided
at the end of this letter for your convenience. We hope
you will make good use of them.
A
Long History of Abuse
The
sordid story of this affair outlined below is only the latest
chapter in a long history of abuse heaped on the valley
by local government officials in an attempt to convince
the public that the area will be "improved" by the construction
of a six-lane expressway through the middle of it. The abuse
includes:
- Placing
two large municipal dumps on the banks of the creek --
the Upper Ottawa Street dump and the Brampton Street dump
-- and authorizing the continuing operation of a big private
landfill on the east edge of the watershed by Taro Industries
(owned by Philip Environmental);
- Constructing
four combined sewer overflow outlets along the creek which
empty both stormwater and sanitary sewage into its waters
during heavy rains;
-
Dumping salt-laden snow and road detritus every winter
near Albion Falls and on the edge of Red Hill marsh;
- Failing
to deal with illegal dumping in the valley ;
- Allocating
a parks budget of exactly zero dollars to the natural
areas of the valley, including leaving the stunning Albion
Falls area in a disgraceful state of disrepair;
- Burying
the entire creek from West 5th to Upper Ottawa and directing
the municipal storm sewers in that area into the creek
causing it to endure repeated massive flooding.
If
anyone is confused about why a city would degrade 36% of
its parkland in such a crude fashion, they need only remember
that the main expressway justification of regional politicians
is that the valley is "not worth saving". The salmon barrier
story shows that this policy of abuse is being actively
carried on to this very day.
The
Queenston Road Channelization
In
1991, after the provincial government had announced
the cancellation of funding to build the north-south expressway,
the regional government re-routed Red Hill Creek into a
150 metre long concrete channel at Queenston Road. This
three sided concrete box is virtually flat-bottomed and
has several disastrous effects on fish migration and stream
habitat. When the creek is at or near baseflow, the wide
channel spreads out the water flow and ensures that its
depth is reduced to a few inches, making it impossible for
any large fish to swim in the channel. This is the main
problem facing the migrating salmon who are physically more
than twice as high as the available depth of water
in the channel.
In
those infrequent situations where it has rained in the previous
day or two and the water flow in the creek is high, the
fish are faced with a different obstacle. They are required
to swim up the channel against a rushing current for more
than 100 metres without any shelter. Any pauses to rest
result in them being washed back to their starting point.
Finally,
because the channel is nothing but bare concrete, almost
nothing lives in it, and for much of its course it is fully
exposed to the scorching sun which increases the summer
water temperatures above a level in which trout and other
salmoniod fish can survive.
The
"Weir"
To
add insult to injury, a small dam was constructed about
two-thirds of the way up the concrete channel. This is the
"weir" which has been the focus of much attention and confusion.
It is less than half a metre high and would be fairly easy
for large fish to jump over if it had not been built in
the middle of a concrete channel. In its present location,
there is no pool below it where the fish could jump from,
and it would certainly be an obstacle if any fish could
actually get that far up the channel (100 metres upstream
from the lower end). The simple fact is that in low water
situations, no fish can swim up the channel to the weir,
and in high water they are exhausted before they get there.
Those
of you who are familiar with the bureaucratic mind will
not be surprised to learn that the main attention of governments
has been focused on this weir, and not on the concrete channel
which is the real problem. This was where a "notch" was
cut soon after the publicity last fall about the salmon
being stopped. That hole is still there, but it didn't prevent
the spring white sucker run from being blocked at Queenston
Road, and it won't get any salmon past the concrete channel
this fall.
The
Current "Solution"
Consultants
hired by the regional government have dreamed up a "solution"
(mentioned in the Spectator story) although none of the
government agencies involved wants to pay the $7600 price
to implement it. Not surprisingly it calls for more concrete
-- 15 blocks of it to be precise. The blocks are 1 metre
wide and half a metre high and would be placed in three
inverted V formations of five blocks each, with the groups
spaced 30 metres apart. Described as "an experiment", this
scheme might assist migrating fish in high water
situations by providing some shelter in the channel for
them to rest behind. It would have no effect whatsoever
on the low flow situations which prevail 90% of the time.
[Note: the blocks regularly get washed away by high flows
in the creek. There seems to be little interest on the part
of government to maintain this "solution". As
of September 2000, two-thirds of the blocks are gone. ]
The
regional government, which created the mess at Queenston
Road in the first place, says it has no money to pay for
these blocks, because "the funding for the Red Hill Creek
expressway has been cancelled". No mention is made of the
fact that this channel was built after that funding was
cancelled for the north-south road, or of the fact that
construction of the cross-mountain road that the regional
politicians like to call "the Red Hill Creek Expressway"
is continuing merrily along and has already eaten up $37
million.
The
Fisheries Act
Environmentalists
will tell you that there is one piece of legislation protecting
the environment in Canada that has real teeth -- the federal
Fisheries Act. This act empowers the Minister of Fisheries
and Oceans "to require anyone who builds an obstruction
in a waterway to build either a fishway around it or a hatchery
to compensate for damaged stocks". It also "prohibits anyone
from disturbing fish habitat except with the Minister's
approval". In Ontario, the act is administered by the provincial
Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).
As
admitted by MNR in the Spectator story referred to
above, "the ministry would have a good case if it charged
the region with violating the Fisheries Act", but this would
allegedly be "counter-productive".
Some
Additional Facts
Media
stories one year ago this month described the problem at
Queenston Road and the fact that salmon were unable to get
past the concrete channel. Six weeks later, a regional government
report (dated November 13, 1992) admitted that regional
staff had observed "in May 1992" that migrating white suckers
"were unable to move past the weir in order to find spawning
habitat". Incredibly, (or perhaps understandably), this
report only talks about the weir and makes no mention whatsoever
of even the existence of the concrete channel. Significantly,
however, it does report that the cutting of the notch in
the weir is only a temporary measure and that "a longer
term solution for the weir design will be developed in conjunction
with all agencies by Environment Canada".
In
the same month, the Regional Environmental Advisory Committee
(REAC) viewed a slide show on the concrete channel given
by the chairperson of Friends of Red Hill Valley, and passed
a resolution calling on the regional government to redesign
or otherwise alter this channel to allow for fish migration
in the creek. When this item went before the Environmental
Services Committee, however, it was merely "received for
information" and the only action adopted was to instruct
staff to consider this in any future channelization
projects.
When
the staff report and the nil response of the Environmental
Services Committee was conveyed to REAC on February 18,
it was suggested that regional officials didn't seem to
get the point. The following day, a phone call was placed
by the chairperson of Friends of Red Hill to the Senior
Director of the Roads Department and the entire issue was
explained again. This explanation was repeated in a detailed
letter on February 20. The reply six weeks later focused
almost entirely on the weir. One sentence, however, mentioned
the channelization. It reported that "there are no immediate
plans to carry out additional work to rehabilitate the channelized
portion of the Creek". It also claimed the region was "very
willing to implement further remediation with direction
from the Ministry (of Natural Resources) on the most appropriate
and effective way to do it to meet the intent of the Fisheries
Act. However, it appears that the Ministry is satisfied
with the work done to date.
Since
October 1992, Friends of Red Hill Valley has repeatedly
called both the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Department
of Fisheries and Oceans about the concrete channel. MNR
officials have expressed shock at how such a badly designed
channel could have been constructed as recently as 1991
with no attention to fish habitat. Nearly everyone spoken
to outside of the regional government has privately admitted
that the best solution to the channel is dynamite.
Action
Required
It
is absolutely clear that the regional government is responsible
for the mess at Queenston Road and should be required to
correct it immediately. If it is necessary to lay charges
to accomplish this, then the Ministry of Natural Resources
and/or the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, should
do their job as required by the Fisheries Act. It is intolerable
that this flagrant abuse of Red Hill Creek and its fish
populations has been allowed to continue for a year and
a half after everyone knew what the problem was and what
needed to be done. We strongly urge you to telephone and
write to one or more of the following responsible parties
to demand that the abuse of Red Hill Creek and Valley be
stopped.
Regional
Government of Hamilton-Wentworth
119 King Street West, 15th Floor, Hamilton, L8N 3V9
Chairman R.J. Whynott (546-4200)
Ministry of Natural Resources
6301 Whitney Block, 99 Wellesley St. W., Toronto M7A 1W3
Howard Hampton, Minister. Local offices, Fonthill (892-2656)
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
200 Kent Street, Ottawa-Hull K1A 0E6
Tom Reid, Minister. Local offices (336-4568)
[please
note these are old addresses]
Letters
to the newspapers and calls to regional councillors and
mayors may also have some effect, as well as contacting
candidates in the current federal election campaign, especially
in the ridings of Hamilton East and Lincoln that border
on Red Hill Valley.
Friends
of Red Hill Valley would appreciate hearing about your
efforts and the responses you receive.
|
Audio
Presentations: Red Hill Valley - No Place for a Road