River, Stream and Lake Quality
This indicator describes the quality of freshwater found in water bodies such as streams, creeks and sloughs for 2003. Collectively, stream and lake quality is based on considerations of water chemistry, physical habitat and the health of small critters ("biological assemblages").

The following links may provide helpful information and are located outside the EPA.gov domain.

BC Rivers Day is a province-wide event, held every year on the last Sunday in September. Established in 1980 by Mark Angelo and coordinated by the Outdoor Recreation Council (ORC), it has been proclaimed by communities across BC and attracts over 75,000 people to more than 100 events each year. It profiles the threats to our waterways, and offers the public a chance to get directly involved with creating solutions. More Information...

Surrey and Merritt rely on Stewardship Groups: As noted by Dr. Marvin Rosenau and Mark Angelo in "The Role of Public Groups in Protecting and Restoring Freshwater Habitats in British Columbia," citizens and community groups have started to show a 'sense of ownership' of local rivers and riparian areas and have become directly involved to a much greater degree than has been seen in the past. One doing so very successfully is the City of Surrey with its Salmon Habitat Restoration Program (SHaRP). Since its inception in 1996, the SHaRP program has expanded from an instream focused program to one focusing on watershed stewardship principles within Surrey.²⁰ More Information...

Whatcom County Streamside Restoration: A similar example of community problem solving includes a streamside (riparian) restoration project undertaken by northern Whatcom County, the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association and the Whatcom County Sheriff's Department, among others. Guests at the Whatcom County jail who planted 25,000 native plants along 10.6 miles of streams, rivers and other watercourses supported crew work. The revegetation was designed to mitigate the effects of historical channel straightening, dredging, vegetation removal and animal access to freshwater.

Agreements were negotiated with each landowner and planting prescriptions including site preparation, planting and maintenance details. Projects were maintained every 26 days during the growing season with attention paid to special needs such as soil amendments.²¹ More Information...

Low Impact Development helps Bellingham "Reign in the Rain": The City of Bellingham successfully worked with local citizens, the developer community and other city staff to conduct low impact development (LID) training, construct rain gardens (bioswales) in two parking lots and write a case study about the rain garden retrofit.

As a result of this project, Bellingham Public Works and Development staff increased their awareness of LID techniques and are encouraging developers to consider LID practices during the permit review process. Notably, one of the parking lot rain gardens is located at Bloedel Donovan Park adjacent to Lake Whatcom, the City's drinking water reservoir.

LID helps to capture nearly all the polluted runoff from hard surfaces that course into drinking water and other important stream and lake sources.²² More Information...