A Background Report to Assist Developing Indicators for Burrard

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REVIEW OF UPLAND ISSUES IN BURRARD INLET EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Burrard Inlet is a tidal salt-water body in southwestern British Columbia, and is home to a large urbanized population with mainly developed shorelines. Human activities can cause stress to the Inlet through the discharge of wastes (sewerage, air emissions, industrial wastes, and urban run-off) as well as through the pressure exerted on the remaining natural habitat along the shoreline and riparian areas by recreational use, pollution and climate change. The Burrard Inlet Environmental Action Program (BIEAP), established in 1991, is an inter-governmental partnership that coordinates a joint action program to improve and protect the environmental quality of the Inlet. This report documents a risk management approach developed by the BIEAP Plan Implementation Committee (PIC) to transform the individual efforts related to environmental quality data collection from municipalities, government agencies and the Port of Vancouver into State of the Environment knowledge that will tie information to policy making and collective action to address any identified issues. This report ranks upland issues affecting Burrard Inlet using a frequency and impact analysis resulting in issues with high priority, medium priority, and low priority for PIC attention. For each, the report identifies controls in place to mitigate the issue, identifies options for further consideration and action, and offers recommendations for future research. Additional issues identified but not prioritized due to lack of information include natural hazards (fire, earthquake and debris flow), climate change impacts, atmospheric deposition and species at risk. The ranking given to all issues is determined by the particular conditions of Burrard Inlet, based on the professional judgment and knowledge of the area provided by the wide range of expertise found on the PIC, and as such can not be extrapolated to other regions or water bodies. As part of the BIEAP risk management approach to monitoring the Burrard Inlet ecosystem, this report is intended for use by the PIC in developing State of the Environment indicators for Burrard Inlet, inform further data collection efforts, and guide and support some of the individual and joint efforts around activities, controls, studies, planning and education needed to improve and maintain the environmental quality of the Inlet. In summarizing the upland issues, this report will help the PIC to document and rank the ecosystem threats facing the Inlet. Impacts to the environmental quality and health of Burrard Inlet stem from a combination of upland, shoreline and water-based activities, all of which will be equally considered by the PIC during the process of indicator selection. - 2 -
REVIEW OF UPLAND ISSUES IN BURRARD INLET TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...........................................................................................................................2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ..............................................................................................................................3 LIST OF FIGURES.....................................................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................................4 LIST OF APPENDICES.............................................................................................................................4 LIST OF ACRONYMS...............................................................................................................................5 1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................6 1.1 BURRARD INLET............................................................................................................................6 1.2 BURRARD INLET ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION PROGRAM.................................................................8 1.2.1 Consolidated Environmental Management Plan for Burrard Inlet .........................................8 1.3 INDICATOR DEVELOPMENT ...........................................................................................................9 1.4 DETERMINING PRIORITIES FOR MONITORING UPLAND IMPACTS TO BURRARD INLET.................10 1.5 FOCUS OF THIS REPORT ..............................................................................................................11 2 UPLAND ISSUES AFFECTING BURRARD INLET....................................................................13 2.1 PRIORITY UPLAND ISSUES IN BURRARD INLET .............................................................13 2.2 HIGH PRIORITY ISSUES FOR PIC ATTENTION ..................................................................14 2.2.1 Toxic Chemicals Use and Dispersion....................................................................................14 2.2.2 Development ..........................................................................................................................16 2.2.3 Habitat Loss...........................................................................................................................25 2.2.4 Stormwater Discharges .........................................................................................................29 2.2.5 Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent....................................................................................35 2.2.6 CSO Discharges ....................................................................................................................38 2.3 MEDIUM PRIORITY ISSUES FOR PIC ATTENTION ...........................................................40 2.3.1 Spills ......................................................................................................................................40 2.3.2 Contaminated Sites ................................................................................................................42 2.3.3 Invasive Species.....................................................................................................................45 2.3.4 Industrial Sources..................................................................................................................47 2.4 LOW PRIORITY ISSUES FOR PIC ATTENTION...................................................................51 2.4.1 Pesticides and Fertilizers Use and Dispersion......................................................................51 2.5 GENERAL SOLUTIONS ..........................................................................................................52 3 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY.......................................................................53 3.1 FUTURE MAPPING RECOMMENDATIONS......................................................................................53 3.2 ISSUES REQUIRING FURTHER STUDY AND/OR DISCUSSION .........................................................56 3.3 SOLUTIONS AND ACTIONS FOR IDENTIFIED RISKS.......................................................................57 4 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................59 5 REFERENCES CITED .....................................................................................................................60 - 3 -
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Page 27 and 28: Controls in Place REVIEW OF UPLAND
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3 Recommendations for Further Study
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Spills: REVIEW OF UPLAND ISSUES IN
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3.3 Solutions and Actions for Ident
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4 Conclusion REVIEW OF UPLAND ISSUE
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REVIEW OF UPLAND ISSUES IN BURRARD
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General (asked in every interview):
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Appendix C - Questionnaire Answers
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FREQUENCY REVIEW OF UPLAND ISSUES I
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Workshop Participants: REVIEW OF UP
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Next Steps Next steps include the f
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Risk Description 1. Natural Hazards
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Risk Description 4. Habitat Loss* L
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Risk Description 7. • STP* (Lions
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Risk Description 11. Contaminated S
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Risk Description 17. Contaminated S
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A Background Report to Assist Developing Indicators for Burrard

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