Stream Monitoring at CVC Presented by: Loveleen Clayton & Jon Nodwell

Transcription

1 Stream Monitoring at CVC Presented by: Loveleen Clayton & Jon Nodwell SOSMART Meeting MNR Aurora District Office March 21, 2012

2 Tiered Monitoring Approach Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Objective To measure the condition of valued components at a scale that reflects general quality. To determine how changes in land use affect valued components To determine if site-scale mitigations protect valued components from the effects of landscape scale developments. Temporal Scale Long-term (i.e yrs) Medium term (i.e. 10yrs) Short term (i.e. 5yrs) Monitoring Spatial Scale Watershed Catchment Site Reporting Spatial Scale Watershed Dependant upon the study area and the monitoring question Dependant upon the study area and the monitoring question Monitoring Questions What is the general health (condition) of valued components? What trends in condition of valued components are occurring or likely to occur in the watershed? Are landscape scale developments meeting the targets set for flow, erosion, water quality, fish habitat protection, terrestrial feature protection? Does mitigation (e.g., restoration, LID) at the site level provide protection against the negative effects of landscape scale development? Are there potential problems in the watershed that we need to scrutinize in greater detail (e.g. Tier 2 or Tier 3 monitoring)? Is the watershed affected by climate change? Example Integrated Watershed Monitoring Program Brampton Effectiveness Monitoring Program LID Monitoring Restoration Monitoring

3 Tier 1 Monitoring Programs Integrated Watershed Monitoring Program Purpose Funding To track changes in watershed health over time. Municipalities Study Area ~1000km2 Timeframe

4 Tier 1 Monitoring Programs (cont.) Real-Time Monitoring Purpose Funding To assess real-time changes in water quality, to feed into a Spills Response Program and watershed-wide integrated data models. Municipalities Study Area ~1000km2 Timeframe

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6 Tier 2 Monitoring Programs Fletcher s Creek Monitoring Brampton Effectiveness Monitoring Impact Monitoring Credit River Tributaries Monitoring

7 Tier 2 Monitoring Programs (cont.) Fletcher s Creek Monitoring Purpose Funding Study Area To assess the response of watercourses to urbanization. Municipalities 45 km2 Timeframe

8 Tier 2 Monitoring Programs (cont.) Effectiveness Monitoring Purpose Funding Study Area To determine the effectiveness of current land use planning controls and BMP measures and to provide guidance for future planning initiatives with NW Brampton. Initially Developers Presently - CVC 75 km2 Timeframe

9 Tier 2 Monitoring Programs (cont.) Impact Monitoring Purpose Funding Study Area To establish cause and affect relationships in a deteriorated system by assessing land use and management practices on the stream condition. Municipalities 44 km2 Timeframe

10 Tier 2 Monitoring Programs (cont.) Credit River Tributaries Purpose Funding To establish baseline conditions for the area prior to land use change from agricultural to urban. Developers Study Area 9.7km2 (4 trib catchments) Timeframe

11 Low Flow High Flow

12 Tier 3 Monitoring Programs Low Impact Development Monitoring Winter Road Salt Monitoring Site Level SWM Monitoring

13 Tier 3 Monitoring Programs (cont.) Low Impact Development Monitoring Purpose Funding Study Area Timeframe To evaluated the performance of LID features within local climatic conditions. Municipalities, Private companies, CVC, NGOs, Universities Watershed-wide site-scale projects

14 Tier 3 Monitoring Programs (cont.) Winter Road Salt Monitoring Purpose Funding Study Area To assess existing winter road and parking lot maintenance practices has on the natural environment by: - optimizing the use of road salt - evaluating the environmental impact of alternative de-icers Municipalities, University, CVC, NWRI, GO Transit (cost-share) 1.6 km 2 total Timeframe

15 Tier 3 Monitoring Programs (cont.) Site Level SWM Monitoring Purpose Funding Study Area To review the use of floating islands within SWM ponds for the purpose of mitigation thermal pollution and enhancing stream condition. Municipalities, CVC, University, private company.02 km2 Timeframe

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17 What s different about our programs? Staffing Funding Database Protocols Corporate level re-evaluation

18 What s different about our programs? (cont.) Staffing CVC staff lead with expertise in each of the disciplines that we monitor (i.e., hydrogeology, hydrology, meteorology, terrestrial, water quality, geomorphology, benthics, fish) Watershed Monitoring Specialists to coordinate monitoring for Tier 1 and 2 Restoration team and our team monitor at different scales

19 What s different about our programs? (cont.) Funding Tier 2 monitoring is initially funded by developers then taken over by municipalities Corporate funding pressures

20 What s different about our programs? (cont.) Database Internal database houses some data, while others are in Excel Corporate level re-evaluation of databases across the authority Aim to store all monitoring data on internal database

21 What s different about our programs? (cont.) Protocols Benthics: revised kick and sweep Geomorphology: detailed Water Quality: storm event sampling; autosamplers; hydrolab deployment; real-time

22 What s different about our programs? (cont.) Monitoring re-evaluation Corporate level re-evaluation across the authority for all types of monitoring (e.g.,parks, terrestrial, water) Funding pressures and a review of the IWMP have prompted us to scale back our stream monitoring and refine our scope

23 Questions?