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Richmond's Sturgeon Banks eroding at an alarming rate

Government agencies meeting to discuss action plan

A rather dejected looking Otto Langer looks past the latest anti-jet fuel sign he's nailed to a post on the West Dyke Trail and stares toward Sturgeon Banks.

A short distance away, two massive cargo ships pass along Steveston Jetty and Sand Heads to his left - as if they were plowing through the green marsh itself - as scores of Richmondites cycle and walk behind him.

"Basically this is the bulrushes, the cattails and further out, the carex marshes. It's sedge," said Langer, a retired Department of Fisheries and Oceans marine biologist and local environmental activist, referring to Sturgeon Banks, a strip of marshland and mudflats that run the length of the West Dyke Trail.

"That's basically the engine that drives the Fraser River Estuary and makes this piece of land all the way from UBC to Point Roberts one of the more productive estuaries in the world. So, every year, the plants convert solar energy into useful carbohydrates and sugars and they're eaten by the insects and break down. In the spring you have billions of insects in the river, and when the (juvenile) salmon come down the river - you might have up to a billion in one year - that's what they feast on. This is their nursery ground. Without the marshes we are a little bit lost," said Langer

Sturgeon

 

While industrialists are lining up, along with Port Metro Vancouver (PMV), to make their case for expanded riverfront infrastructure and deeper dredging of the Fraser River, environmentalists and scientists, like Langer, are sounding old warnings.

Such plans, says Langer and others like him, will accelerate the erosion of Sturgeon Banks if nothing is done to mitigate the deleterious manmade effects on an area that presently provides vital, unique wildlife habitat, human recreation and flood protection for the city.

In the last 20 years scientists believe the Banks - part of the largest estuary on Canada's west coast - have eroded at an alarming rate of 10-15 metres per year, on average.

The width from the dike to the marsh's foreshore edge is about one kilometre, on average. Widely accepted (possibly conservative) estimates have sea levels rising about 1.2 metres by 2100, meaning waves could be crashing against the dike by that time, especially if the erosion continues.

Need to Act

According to Langer, about 20 years ago "the old Fraser River Harbour Commission got upset at a big conference when I said the harbour authority, and the then Department of Public Works, as well as the (Canadian) Coast Guard were basically robbing the river of sand for cheap fill from dredging the channel."

Despite his and others' warnings, it is presently unclear who is ultimately responsible for managing and protecting Sturgeon Banks. Also, how it's being managed seems to be by an increasingly ad hoc fashion.

As Brent Gurd, wildlife biologist for the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources - which manages the wildlife in the 5,100 hectare marsh and intertidal mudflat - notes: "We need to figure out what we can do quickly to reduce the risks significantly.At some point we will have to act because not acting is not an option."

Gurd and the ministry, along with the City of Richmond, Environment Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), First Nations groups and others have met with PMV four times this year in preliminary, feasibility talks on what to do about the erosion.

Dredging causes erosion

At issue, largely, is the fact dredging the Fraser results in less sediment (earthy particles smaller than sand) reaching the Banks.

Michael Church, a professor emeritus of geomorphology specializing in river stability, says further dredging of the Fraser will result in greater marsh degradation.

By dredging deeper "you increase the cross-sections and decrease velocity of the river and that will encourage more sand to fall on the bottom of the river. Of course, that fills up the excavation and they have to drill it all over again," said Church.

With less sediment reaching the Banks the ocean's tides and waves become deeper and stronger, respectively, and slowly pull the land away from the shore and into the sea, Church explained. "Those are my judgments and that's my speculation," said Church.

According to an engineering report from the City of Richmond issued last week, in 1960 the draft of the main channel of the Fraser was 8.7 metres. By 1976 it was 10.7 metres. Presently, Port Metro Vancouver is tasked to dredge the Fraser to a depth of 11.5 metres.

Each year, the port excavates about 2.5 to three million cubic metres of sediment. Church estimates only about 1.3 million cubic metres reaches the delta.

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The port sells the material to developers to use in construction in order to subsidize the costs of dredging, which - before 1998 - was the financial responsibility of the federal government. This year Surrey Fraser Docks expressed interest in dredging to a depth of 13.2 metres.

A recent report from the Richmond Chamber of Commerce noted 18-metre shipping hulls may soon need to be accommodated. But how deep the port will go is undetermined, notes Harbour Master Chris Wellstood. "There are a lot of impediments that restrict us from dredging deeper. The George Massey Tunnel is the big one. There are also lots of utility crossings that prevent us from going deeper. We'll have to solve all those issues before thinking about going deeper," said Wellstood.

When asked if digging deeper is necessary to stay economically competitive, Wellstood acknowledged it would be but was "hesitant on giving a number."

But, dredge too deep and parts of the river and the city land could collapse inward, warned Langer.

Citing a study from 1995, biologist Gurd acknowledges lack of sediment is "the leading hypothesis" for the erosion, but also notes the marsh may be weakened by human-driven nutrients, a result of sewage and agricultural discharge.

He says the additional nutrients in the water may be weakening the roots of plants, as they're not required to dig deeper for food. As a result, the plants may be more susceptible to being uprooted in storms. Furthermore, it's believed the Steveston Jetty diverts fresh river water, making the Banks saltier, thus limiting growth.

"So you get a number of factors working together ...Even if we solve the sediment issue, we still may not see return of the marsh to a level that we think could occur," said Gurd.

Why save the Banks?

For Richmond residents, the interest in saving Sturgeon Banks is at least three fold: One, the West Dyke Trail provides recreation space for people and is an iconic tourism destination.

Two, it's an important ecological system, host to fish and at least 47 bird species in addition to small mammals; the Banks are part of the Pacific Flyway and without them the city's community parks may be even more inundated with geese in the fall.

And, following a recent "eruption" of visiting snowy owls, Gurd said sandpipers were recently found feasting on a thin layer of biofilm in the mudflats.

"The mudflat doesn't look that important, but there's lots going on," said Gurd.

(Read about the city’s commitment to the 51-hectare Grauer Lands here.)

Three, by absorbing storm surges, almost like a sponge, the Banks provide the city flood protection for one of the longest, most vulnerable stretches of dike for the city.

"We worry a lot about flood protection. Sturgeon Banks provides wave energy dissipation," said Lloyd Bie, manager of engineering planning for Richmond.

The Wild West

Over the course of his 77 years Coun. Harold Steves, worried about the rate of erosion, says he's slowly watched the waters approach his home, across from the dike.

When asked who is in charge of protecting the land, the longtime city councillor is stumped. "Nobody. Nobody," said Steves.

"Basically it's zoned agriculture by the city. DFO has a major say over it from a fisheries point of view. It's a wildlife management area, which is a joint federal/provincial designation, and it's protected by the (United Nations) Ramsar agreement, which is an international agreement for wetlands protection. But there's no one authority. They can all overrule each other, which is the case of the port. It's difficult to say whom. Oh, and Metro Vancouver has some jurisdiction over it," said Steves.

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Langer echoes Steves' concerns.

"It's hard to figure out. Even for me and I spent my life on it. Federal fisheries has no field offices anymore on the Fraser," said Langer. The longtime Richmond resident is concerned

about the lack of proactive, organized efforts at all levels of government to effectively mitigate the destruction of wildlife and fish habitat along the river.

"We're into a lot of hypocrisy and double speak in government. I just think that's how they've been trained," said Langer.

Costly credits?

Langer says there is a misguided approach to the river's management taking place. He particularly takes issue with DFO and what is known as the Habitat Management Program, which sees PMV receive credit for rebuilding or enhancing wildlife habitat, in order to develop projects elsewhere along the river, such as the Terminal 2 expansion of the Roberts Bank port facility in Delta.

According to the DFO website: “A proponent that has established the bank may ‘withdraw’ credits from the habitat bank to offset the serious harm to fish resulting from their project.”

The trade-off ratio can vary, according to DFO, which did not specify the range when asked.

An example of damage done by man-made infrastructure can be seen at Roberts Bank in Delta where two jetties (BC Ferries and the Roberts Bank coal and container terminal) have effectively changed the currents of the ocean, eroding the mudflats.

“Roberts Bank (Terminal) and the ferry terminal created a a greater tidal channel as the water velocity increased and started erosion. You can see it on Google Earth,” said biologist Gurd.

Roberts Bank

 

In the last 100 years it’s believed 70 per cent of intertidal and seasonally flooded habitats along the Fraser have been lost through diking and shoreline infrastructure, according to PMV.

Langer said the push for simply rebuilding marshes (for the most part) in the credit program is narrow-minded, as a more holistic approach needs to be taken.

“The whole estuary is important. Spawning grounds, sub-tidal areas. It’s all essential habitat and let’s not pretend this green stuff (marsh) is the end all and if we create more of it we’ll create more salmon. That’s utter, pure bullshit and there’s no scientific information to whether we need more marshes, however, I’m certainly not opposed to them,” said Langer.

Langer said the trade-offs can be incongruous.

For instance, PMV gained credits in 2013 for clearing away logs and debris and facilitating more marsh growth near Boundary Bay but can apply them to different parts of the estuary.

“In the Boundary Bay case, credits are being given for high elevation marsh and that will probably be traded for other habitat types such as sub-tidal habitat losses at the giant fill site proposed for the new container terminal,” noted Langer.

Carrie Brown, PMV director of environmental programs, said the port is looking at Sturgeon Banks as a possible spot to gain credits. "It's a preliminary concept for habitat restoration. ...It's part of the port's habitat enhancement program," said Brown. "It's one of the sites that has been considered and in its early preliminary concept phase," said Brown.

"Environmental stewardship is core to us. We know the relocation of Fraser River sediment has changed the dispersion patterns of sediment coming out of the river," added Brown.

Current habitat enhancement projects for the port can be found here.

According to DFO spokesperson Carrie Mishima, via email, the habitat offsets "should not address environmental damage for which another person or organization is clearly responsible to rectify.

“Consequently, restoring damage created by the same entity in the past would not be approved by DFO as an offsetting measure, or for inclusion into a habitat bank," added Mishima.

It remains undetermined whether restoring Sturgeon Banks would result in PMV credits.

Langer thinks the port ought not to be credited for saving the Banks.

“Port Metro Vancouver is probably the biggest threat to the estuary,” he said.

Nor should it be given credit for other projects elsewhere where he says it had done prior damage, noting Boundary Bay.

Ultimately, he believes the habitat credit program has lost all environmental direction.

"For DFO to re-negotiate good and precautionary harbour management agreements of the past and now allow PMV to clean up something like log debris and pretend they have built new habitat is simply a lack of common sense (and) poor science,” said Langer, noting the habitat banking program was initially intended to build new habitat.

Gutting relations

The apparent gutting of DFO on the Fraser has made strange bedfellows between Langer and Tom Siddon, the Progressive Conservative Minister of Fisheries and Oceans from 1985 to 1990, who said the recently passed Bill C-38 "made a Swiss cheese out of the federal Fisheries Act" and "significantly" reduced the principles of an integrated co-management system for riparian areas.

Indeed, the highly regarded Fraser River Estuary Management Program, which reviewed development projects and coordinated intergovernmental cooperation, was shut down in 2013 due to budget cuts.

"It was probably not a good move but not a surprising move considering how governments want to save money," noted professor Church. It ensured agencies were talking. Now it's up to individuals to talk to one another; it reduces the chance you get a well-managed management process for the river," The closure has also largely put the port in charge of environmental approvals; something Langer says is a conflict of interest.

Brown disagrees. "We're all part of the global circle. The port tries to offset the impacts of port development. The habitat enhancement program is a proactive measure to try to provide a balance between development and healthy environments," said Brown.

The cuts could mean a more cumbersome way of getting things done on Sturgeon Banks, noted Gurd.

"It's always a challenge for agencies to get together in the face of ongoing cuts to resources and increasing demands to deal with other people's plans, like development, that cause us to be more reactive, than proactive," he said.

The meetings this year between the interested agencies has seen each party express their concerns.

"I think most of us at the feasibility table were surprised at the rate (of erosion). We did not know if there was an annual survey or whose role and responsibility it was to understand the dynamics of the edge of the bank," said Lesley Douglas, Richmond's manager of environmental sustainability.

Sturgeon

 

Finding solutions

One of the ideas proposed within the group is to dump piles of sediment in front of the Banks' intertidal mudflat so it can gradually build the marsh and mudflats back up.

Agencies will need to assess issues like sediment particle size, location and mobility in the water.

Other ideas include putting rock sea berms in the Georgia Strait and installing pipes across the Banks to pump out sediment.

There are various factors that need to be considered, namely the hydrology of the area, not to mention cost and who pays for it all. Gurd noted the changing nature of winter storms is another factor that needs to be considered.

"It's the storms that can cause a lot of change in a very short period of time. They're (increasingly) unpredictable," he said.

At any rate, who is doing what and what is being done is a massive question that will need to be answered sooner, rather than later.

Langer is far from convinced.

"It's not a simple thing to tinker with and a lot of things they're rationalizing to improve nature, I think, is a smokescreen to rubber stamp the industrialization of the Fraser...How many fingers do you have to have, to fill how many thousand holes in the dike?"

 

- Requests to speak to scientists from Environment Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans were attempted, however, no one was available, according to media liaisons.