Cowichan Estuary at Risk of Heavy-Metal Manufacturing

CAROL HARTWIG / Times Colonist

March 10, 2019Re: “A test of mettle on Cowichan’s edge,” column, March 1.Jack Knox’s column focused on industry in Cowichan Bay and public concern over potential environmental impacts in one of the most important salmon-producing estuaries in British Columbia.Knox failed, however, to mention that the metal-manufacturing operation is entirely on Crown land and is a sublease of Western Stevedoring wholly owned by Carrix Inc., a multinational corporation based in the U.S. Both the provincial and regional governments have allowed expansion of its metal-manufacturing operation in contravention of both the local zoning bylaws and the Cowichan Estuary Environmental Management Plan under order-in-council 1652,without the required zoning or permits.Local residents are questioning whether the potential metal contamination is being proposed for legalization to allow activities such as demolition of ships and bridges (similar to Seattle’s Hood Canal Bridge, which was brought to the bay in 2009). These would be allowed under the rezoning if approved, and local residents would have trouble protecting the estuary in the future.While B.C. is advancing protection and enhancement of wild salmon through the premier’s Wild Salmon Advisory Council, the U.S. and Canada are making substantial commitments to orca recovery, with the main threats the lack of chinook salmon and marine pollution. Industrial expansion in one of the most important chinook salmon nurseries in the province without the barest of environment reviews is problematic.The question is simple: Will the minister of the environment and the Cowichan Valley Regional District respect their legal obligations and mandates under order-in-council 1652 for environmental impact reviews and zoning enforcement?An opponent of rezoning, Paul Rickard, charter member of the Cowichan Chinook Rebuilding Plan Committee, maintains: “The Cowichan chinook uniquely spend all of their life cycle in the Salish Sea, and are therefore a major food source for the southern resident orcas.“The highest mortality of young salmon is in their first three months of life, thus better survival in the estuary as juveniles will lead to more returning adult salmon.”Both the official community plan and the Cowichan Watershed Board have a target of being able to eat shellfish from the Cowichan Estuary by 2020 — a goal that will be unachievable as long as heavy-metal contamination remains a risk. Cowichan Estuary Restoration and Conservation Association, with 100-plus members, also opposes rezoning, and completed a survey of oysters in the estuary in 2017, finding there is commercial potential.The chair of the restoration association, conservation ecologist Dr. Goetz Schuerholz, said: “To legalize metal manufacturing in the heart of one of the most important estuaries in B.C. at this day and age and status of knowledge is irresponsible. For the CVRD to legalize what has been illegal and non-compliant with CVRD zoning bylaw for over 15 years is worse. What message is being sent to law-abiding citizens?”Proponents of the operation have sidestepped any heavy-metal contamination issues and tried to focus on jobs (although numbers vary from 15 to 50, 60 and even as high as 80, and thus need confirmation). Two similar metal-fabrication operations with union jobs exist in land-based industrial parks in the Cowichan Valley. Opponents of rezoning have concluded that jobs could be relocated and therefore not lost while protecting the estuary and human/ecosystem health and safety.Questions have arisen over whether the out-of-compliance metal manufacturing operation is a contaminated site and whether heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium and lead are being introduced into the estuary. Rickard has pointed out that: “Cowichan chinook are known to wander more than other chinook populations. Heavy metal and aluminum and zinc pollution can affect juvenile salmon by affecting their homing abilities and reaction times. Southern resident orcas almost exclusively eat chinook. Therefore, unpolluted water makes a difference to the chinook and orcas.”Results of a perception poll of Cowichan Bay residents in 2014 found that more than 90 per cent of the respondents want to see harmful industry phased out in the estuary to be replaced by nature-based tourism as the economic driver of the Cowichan Bay community. The area proposed for rezoning is repatriated Crown land, a gift of the Canadian National Railway in 1990 for the benefit of all British Columbians that was to be returned for conservation after lumber shipping ended.Times have changed on the coast, and it is time to rethink expanding industry in a sensitive estuary when these opportunities arise.Carol Hartwig, MSc, is a retired professional biologist.