Both Powell River airport and Squatter’s Creek landfill sites are listed in Powell River Regional District’s solid waste management plan. Closure plans for both sites were slated to be developed in 2012 and 2014 respectively. Local governments have a responsibility to develop these closure plans as soon as possible in order to address the mistakes of the past and to assure residents that measures are being taken to protect water quality.
Despite extraordinary measures taken in other areas to restore creeks and rivers in BC, Carlos Felip, City of Powell River director of planning services, said it may not be possible to restore Squatter’s Creek, given that buildings have been constructed overtop of the creek in places. “It is possible to overcome many details,” Felip said, “but the fact the creek is buried under buildings in a few areas is something that you can’t come back from easily and without great expense.”
The fact that the creek lies beneath a landfill site and was partially re-routed via culvert and 750 metres of closed conduit are details that could potentially be overcome said Ken Ashley, PhD at University of BC faculty of applied sciences in civil and environmental engineering. “Even after years of enclosure and compromise it is entirely possible to restore a creek or waterway,” he said. “This is something, as people realize the value in healthy streams or creeks in our communities, we are seeing happen. Miles of pavement and parking lot are being ripped up to expose creeks again as part of restorative programs. We’re actually seeing this happen more and more as communities come to terms with mistakes made in the past.”
Before 1971, the city used portions of the creek, which drains approximately one third of the Westview watershed, as a landfill by forcing water to flow through culverts and dumping garbage in the creek’s gully.
In the March 2007 Squatter’s Creek Hydraulic Structure Assessment, written as part of the Westview Watershed Master Drainage Plan by Kerr Wood Leidal Associates Ltd, consulting engineers for City of Powell River, there is a column titled Fish Passage Barrier, or Obstruction. Seven out of eight entries indicate BA, which, according to the column’s definitions, means “not fish passable,” where this was once a healthy, flourishing waterway. The exception is a culvert in what is called the “woodlot”, which is indicated as “fish passable.”
“There are many creeks throughout our area that were buried in the early days,” Felip explained. “It’s just something that we did back then in the name of progress, that we would not do now because we know better.”
