Low water levels in Cowichan River may put hatching salmon at risk, conservationists fear

Low water levels in the Cowichan River are causing concern for salmon eggs due to hatch very soon.

The snowpack in the regionis not large enough to provide the water that the fledgling fish need to survive, says Parker Jefferson,co-chair of theCowichanStewardship Roundtable.

Acrisis for the river's salmon is now less than a month away, he says.

"Many of the areas the salmon spawned in are now high and dry, and obviously most of those eggs will be lost unless the river comes up," Jefferson toldGregorCraigie, host of CBC'sOn the Island.

TheweironCowichanLake, which controlsthe outflow into theCowichanRiver and is used toconserve water forthe summer, should be under water during this time of year but Jefferson says the weir's water storage level is only at 40 per cent.

"Not in my experience have we seen the lake this low at this time of year. This is unusual," he said.

The riveris running at 20 cubic metres per second, according to Jefferson. When salmon spawned in fall 2018, the river was running at four times that speed.

Significant rainfall in the area is not expected for the foreseeable future.

Jefferson says becauseCowichanValley has been so cold this winter, many of the eggs could freeze as well.

New weir

The Cowichan Stewardship Roundtable protects the area's watershed and works withCowichanValley residents, industry and government to address issues related to water. For instance, when low river flows threatened the chinook salmon population in fall 2006, members quickly acted to relocate spawning fish from the dry area to a high-flow area.

TheRoundtable believes a new weir to replace the current structure, which is around 60 years old, would solve the salmon's problems.

The weir would be built to modern engineering standards and modern seismic standards and would hold more water, says Jefferson, allowing for better regulation of the water flow.

Jefferson says collaboratorsare in the process ofapplying for funds to do the engineering studies for anew weir.

Licence concerns

Cowichan Valley MLA SoniaFurstenausays building a new weir shouldn't be a problem, but there has been difficulty finding an organization that would apply for a conservation water licence to operate and maintain the weir, due toliability concerns.

Both Furstenauand Jefferson say they hope theprovincial government will take out the licence.

"There's a responsibility toget over this hurdle as quickly as possible. Every year that we wait, this river is suffering greater and greater impacts because of the low water flows," saidFurstenau.

In a statement, the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development saidit was aware and appreciates the concerns raised by the Cowichan Valley community.

It does not currently have plans to take over the licence.

Listen to both interviews here: