| Abstract/Description or Keywords |
The Kootenay River at Fenwick Station flows in the Rocky Mountain Trench, draining 12,000 km2 of the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Purcell Mountains to the west. It is a transboundary river, which joins the Elk River in B.C. and flows into Koocanusa Lake. This reach of the Kootenay River supports significant fisheries and is used for irrigation. The Teck-Cominco Metals Ltd. Sullivan mine, concentrator and former fertilizer complex at Kimberley in the St. Mary River watershed and the Crestbrook Forest Industry Ltd. kraft pulp mill at Skookumchuck have been the main influences on water quality. The Elk River and potential impacts from coal mining drain in downstream from Fenwick. CONCLUSIONS: • Lithium concentrations seem to be declining through time, possibly due to a lesser impact of groundwater on the flow regime. This needs to be confirmed by a statistician. • Temperature generally exceeds guidelines during warmer summer months. • Turbidity values generally exceed the guideline for the protection of source waters used for drinking, meaning that if suspended solids removal is not used, disinfection of water supplies could be compromised. • Otherwise, water quality was generally good with only occasional values exceeding guidelines for pH, fecal coliforms, several metals, dissolved organic carbon, and true colour. In cases where total metal concentrations exceeded guideline values, these were generally correlated with higher turbidity concentrations, meaning that the metals were likely in particulate form and not biologically available. RECOMMENDATIONS: We recommend monitoring be continued for the Kootenay River near Fenwick Station since it is a trans-boundary site and to ensure that lithium either levels out or continues to decrease. Water quality indicators that are important for future monitoring are: • flow, water temperature, specific conductivity, pH, turbidity, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen, • phosphorus, sodium and selenium, • appropriate forms of metals for comparison to their respective guidelines, and • other variables related to drinking water such as colour. |
