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Thursday, June. June. 11, 11, 2015 2015 -- Alberni Alberni Valley Valley News News Thursday,
Warm temperatures threaten salmon stocks From / A3
“Right now all the stocks are coming back early because of the warm water,” Leyenaar. The problems caused by warm water are amplified in nonenhanced, or wild, creeks. “When we incubate [in Kitsuksis Creek] we end up getting 85-90 per cent of the eggs out of the females that turn up,” said Leyenaar. “When it’s done in wild streams its under 30 per cent so a wild stream is impacted a lot more.” Hupacasath First Nations fisheries manager Graham Murrell is equally concerned. “It’s quite tough for the fish right now,” said Murrell. “Our river temperatures are getting up to 23 degrees.” That’s bad news for
salmon in local rivers. “Fish stop moving around 23, 24, 25 [degrees Celsius],” he said. “Last year the fish powered through at higher temperatures but if the trends continue, there will be obvious concerns.” The high temperatures are made worse by lower river levels. “With our river levels we’re looking like it’s at the end of July,” he said. “It will be concerning as the summer goes on. The lack of snowpack up there is not going to help things.” Cicon’s water restrictions aren’t the only thing that’s coming on earlier than ever. The Upnit Power Corporation ceased operations at its China Creek hydroelectric dam on May 20—more than three weeks
‘Right now all the stocks are coming back early because of the warm water.’
2005. “Last year we thought it was a little bit early [to be closing] and that was June 13,” said Casavant. “Usually we shut down at the beginning of July.” Upnit’s early shutdown was caused by the same factor as the water restrictions and the salmon concerns. “There’s no snowpack. We usually
– Jake Leyenaar
earlier than ever before, said Upnit CEO and plant manager Bert Casavant. He’s been at Upnit since its inception in December
to about 500 kilowatts and the water levels are still low that’s telling me we need to shut down,” said Casavant. “It’s just too much with the wear and tear on the machines.” While Upnit might be done for the summer, just over 20 kilometres away at Lizard Lake Cicon worries about what he’ll be faced with as the summer continues.
“We’ll monitor the lake levels, we’ll monitor the city’s water consumption and the weather to determine if we’ll have to go to further stages of water restrictions,” said Cicon. If he does, it will be the first year that Cicon will have made that decision. “There’s a possibility we’d go to stage 2... a stronger possibility than ever before.” reporter@albernivalleynews.com twitter.com/AlberniNews
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1. Minimize water used for non-essentials such as car washing, and hosing off your driveway. 2. Ensure that sprinklers are not left running unnecessarily.
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Guy Cicon, City Engineer
run off of that and there was none,” he said. “The precipitation was lower this year too.” While the lack of snowpack is ultimately what causes the shutdown, Casavant looks at river levels before making the decision. When the river level is too low, it puts too much wear and tear on the equipment. “When we get down
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