What Are They Building?

[dude1125]

Does anyone know what they are building across the river between 22x and Policeman's? The berm goes a good distance into the river. I'm not sure what affect it has on fishing.

[bigbrown]

They are making a sewage line to get to the pine creek waste treatment plant. The berm will take over that one half of the river till its ready, then they will remove it, and put one coming from the other bank half way to finish the pipe.

 

It has affected the fishing considerably downstream after a good rain, as the left bank is extremely prone to becoming muddy. I floated glenmore to police on wednesday after the rain on tuesday, the whole left bank from that berm was ruined from there down to police

[Tracy]

They also ruined two really fine fishing spots. No matter how hard they try to "restore" that section it will never be as good as it was. Shameful.

[rusty]

Shameful? Really? Calgary has one of the best wastewater treatment programs in the world. Either we all stop showering, pissing, and crapping, or we accept that there will be some impact from a city of a million people on the Bow.

 

Look at many other places in the world or even in Canada (Vancouver Island) where insufficient wastewater treatment has caused major environmental issues and I think you'll be proud of the advanced systems and technology we have here.

[loyaleddie]

[sarcasm]

 

OMFG…this is going to mildly inconvenience me…What should I do….Write my Alderperson? Posts an inflammatory remark on a message board? I am pissed now damn it! I want action.

 

[/sarcasm]

 

I totally agree with you Rusty. Remarks like that get under my skin. Take the scenario of a severe accident on the Deerfoot. What thoughts are going through 80% of the driver’s minds that are caught in the backlog of traffic? “Oh crap how late is this going to make me?” or “Oh look, there is a car flipped on its side and cop cars have their lights on. I had better slam on me brakes to look!” Whereas, thoughts should be “Oh, I hope everyone is O.K.” or “ Maybe it’s not safe to lock the binders up and look. I will slow down and pass with caution.” But I digress

 

Calgary has to have one of the top wastewater treatment programs going. If it didn’t, then obviously we wouldn’t enjoy the top-notch fisheries we have today. The development of such programs will affect the odd fish holding water. I can live with that, I will just move to one of the other estimated 627 KM’s the Bow offers.

[reevesr1]

Aren't the water treatment plants, with the nutrients they introduce and corresponding massive insect hatches the primary reason the Bow in Calgary fishes so well? You don't see the numbers or size of fish north of Calgary.

[DonnieM]

Great post Loyaleddie. You know I was actually thinking that exact same thing yesterday as there was a "huge" accident on southbound deerfoot and it was announced on the radio just as I was about to hit deerfoot at 4 pm on my way to race down to the south bow for some evening fishing. So I flipped a U and took McLeod to 22x and missed it, saving me possibly an hour of fishing time. But as I was driving it entered my mind, that all I really cared about was getting that extra hour of fishing and I have no idea if someone was killed in this accident or if multiple people were killed. It got me thinking how almost everyday we hear reports of these accidents with people dying and what not, and all anyone ever cares is how much time its going to affect them by and the easiest way to get around them, and now I dont know how I feel about that. Weird. Anyways, not really sure what I am saying. Just an eye opener for me yesterday and when I saw your post today, it enlightened me again, thanks.

[firefrog]

Hello

Rickr you are mostly correct. It's a balancing act - too much nutrients are toxic to the fish and will cause vegetation to choke off a waterway. Too little and it will be sterile. Combine this with ideal water temperatures, cleanliness, spawning and holding features, etc, and you get a stretch of river that is ideal for trout. Aren't we lucky?

At any rate, the main objective of the wastewater treatment is to remove the pathenogenic microbes. Alberta Environment dictates allowable concentrations of nutrients and pathenogens the treatment plant can release. They are more concerned with wildlife and people dying than the ideal balance for the fish. The Pine Creek plant will (at least this is the plan) operate many times 'cleaner' than Bonnybrook or Fish Creek. It will be interesting to see just how this impacts the river.

Cheers

[reevesr1]

Hello

Rickr you are mostly correct

Hey, hey!! I'm almost always mostly wrong! Its a great day.

 

Thanks for the info firefrog.

[Tracy]

Shameful? Really? Calgary has one of the best wastewater treatment programs in the world. Either we all stop showering, pissing, and crapping, or we accept that there will be some impact from a city of a million people on the Bow.

 

Look at many other places in the world or even in Canada (Vancouver Island) where insufficient wastewater treatment has caused major environmental issues and I think you'll be proud of the advanced systems and technology we have here.

 

Where was the public input on this? Was there a forum where the people could voice concerns or ask questions? How about a risk assessment? My comments are about a terrific riffle that had nearly perfect fish holding structure that is now covered in about 2 meters of dirt. Down river not 800 meters is a bridge where these improvement lines could have easily been run. This probably came down to the cheapest possible solution to the city not the most well thought out one. This has nothing to do with my “inconvenience”. That was nowhere in my remarks.

 

I thought this to be another mismanaged project by the good folks at Lafarge when I saw it (in their never ending quest to develop every square meter of that part of the river). If you don’t think all that development on the section between 22X and Deerfoot is going to have a negative impact over the long haul your are kidding yourself.

 

Eventually the province, the city and our country is going to wake up and realize that this river is a gem and responsible for a large portion of recreational income. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too late.

[loyaleddie]

Where was the public input on this? Was there a forum where the people could voice concerns or ask questions? How about a risk assessment? My comments are about a terrific riffle that had nearly perfect fish holding structure that is now covered in about 2 meters of dirt. Down river not 800 meters is a bridge where these improvement lines could have easily been run. This probably came down to the cheapest possible solution to the city not the most well thought out one. This has nothing to do with my “inconvenience”. That was nowhere in my remarks.

 

I thought this to be another mismanaged project by the good folks at Lafarge when I saw it (in their never ending quest to develop every square meter of that part of the river). If you don’t think all that development on the section between 22X and Deerfoot is going to have a negative impact over the long haul your are kidding yourself.

 

Eventually the province, the city and our country is going to wake up and realize that this river is a gem and responsible for a large portion of recreational income. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too late.

 

Here, everything you wanted to know

 

http://www.calgary.ca/portal/server.pt/gat...reek+FAQ.htm#12