Water Quality Program

 The Shuswap Watershed Council (SWC) is focused on a watershed-wide collaborative program to maintain and enhance water quality “at the source.” This is different from the role of water suppliers to treat and deliver drinking water “at the tap.”

Source water protection is a first line of defence. This is best done through collaboration since no single agency has the exclusive responsibility for keeping the watershed healthy. This is where the SWC comes in: as a partnership of several organizations with different roles in water, it facilitates different groups working together to protect and enhance water quality.

Taking steps to protect Shuswap water resources is an important investment in the future of the region. It is easier and less costly to manage small programs now, while water quality is generally good, than to try to fix more serious problems later.

Program Overview

The SWC implemented its Water Quality Program in 2016, with financial support from the CSRD, TNRD, and City of Salmon Arm. In 2018, Adams Lake Indian Band became a financial supporter of the SWC’s work.

This program complements and supports the work of agencies with responsibilities for water, and will not duplicate any functions. The program consists of two initiatives:

1) WATER MONITORING

• Coordinating water quality monitoring activities in the lakes and rivers of the Shuswap watershed to ensure the watershed is sufficiently monitored, with no duplication
• Implementing special monitoring programs to identify emerging issues: See, for example, Monitoring water for contaminants of emerging concern
• Publicly reporting on monitoring results (see our 2016, 2017 and 2018 Water Quality Reports)
• Improving public access to the provincial water quality database (this project is now complete – see our database user guide).

2) WATER PROTECTION

With guidance from an advisory committee, this initiative supports:

• Work by scientists from UBC – Okanagan to research the source(s) and flow-path(s) of phosphorus and other nutrients into the large rivers of the Shuswap watershed. To see results from this study, see Water Quality Reports and Information.
• Phase 1 grant funding to support community-led water quality and restoration projects. (This project is now complete. See Water Quality Improvement Grants for more information and to see what was accomplished.)
• Phase 2 grant funding to support new land management practices to reduce the flow of nutrient-rich waters to the Shuswap River and Salmon River. The SWC has just launched phase 2 as of January 2020. For more information, see Water Quality Improvement Grants.

See the full five-year program plan here: Water Quality Program and Recreational Safety Education Program in the Shuswap Watershed (2016–2020).