Through a combination of weather and residential water use, the spawning channels for cutthroat trout, Coho salmon and threatened Sakinaw sockeye salmon throughout the Sakinaw watershed are now dry, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
At the same time, the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) is looking at the watershed in its search for a long-term water supply for the Pender Harbour area's increasing developments.
The watershed includes Klein, Ambrose, Ruby, Kokomo, Penny, Sakinaw, Katherine, Mixal, Garden Bay and Hotel lakes.
"It's all amazingly interconnected, top to bottom," local Fisheries officer Grant McBain said in a phone interview. Fisheries operates a fish ladder at its dam at the end of Sakinaw at Agamemnon Channel.
"At this moment in time the fish ladder is actually closed because there's not enough water," McBain said. Coho would normally swim up the fish ladder into Sakinaw before they spawn into Mixal Creek then Katherine then Garden Bay. However, Garden Bay Lake water levels will now have to go up 12 inches before water will flow again in the creek.
"It's not going to rain 12 inches between now and when the fish come in at the end of November," McBain noted. "So now we've got all these fish that want to come in and spawn, having successfully made it into Sakinaw Lake once we open the fish ladder, and they are sitting there waiting to spawn." A similar situation in 2002 saw a loss of 80 per cent of the spawning Coho.
"They died before they got a chance to spawn."
At the same time, cutthroat trout are not able to spawn out of Ruby Lake.
"Ruby is now dry. You can walk up and down the spawning channel right now in your running shoes because there's no water coming out of Ruby."
McBain wrote his masters degree thesis on the Sakinaw watershed in 2004 in which he proposed the solution to the water level and seasonal storage issues lies in creating a series of small dams throughout the watershed.
"I think what we need to look at is how much water is where, and then have to also think about the compensation for the fish. It can be managed; it's just basically a series of small storage dams."
The dams would allow for a small amount of flow control to work within the natural water level fluctuations. McBain also emphasizes the importance of water conservation.
"The beauty of it is - this is all solvable."
The SCRD is working on an Area A (Pender Harbour/Egmont) water master plan for long-term water management, which SCRD chair John Rees says will likely take two years to complete. The Regional District is looking at having a UBC scientist study the Sakinaw watershed, with a terms of reference and hydrology study for the water master plan. The master plan will analyze how much water is available in the Pender Harbour area and how water systems could be combined most effectively, Rees explained.
This year, the SCRD amalgamated its Hotel Lake water system with the Garden Bay Waterworks District licence since the Hotel Lake licence had reached its capacity. The water master plan was ordered by an Environmental Appeal Board decision last year.
Regarding the idea for a series of small dams, Rees said the Regional District has not yet gone over the idea in detail.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's perfectly logical." The feasibility of small dams could be studied by the UBC scientist, Rees noted."One of the reasons it hasn't happened is because of funding." Rees noted the SCRD will be applying for any applicable provincial or federal grants.
