Solution to fish deaths proposed

By Scott Neufeld Tuesday, September 12, 2006, http://www.dailycourier.ca/article_520.php
When the water pours out of the tap how many Greater Vernon Water users know how many fish are killed in the process of bringing water to the city? Lumby resident Jim Summerfelt says he knows part of the answer. Ever since a spillway, the outlet for the nearby dam, was built near Aberdeen Lake around 1920 he said about 5,000 to 10,000 rainbow trout die every year trying to get back in the lake."It's just a very big waste of fish," he said. "It's just very sad to see. "The dam funnels water down from the Aberdeen plateau towards Duteau Creek, the source that supplies Electoral Areas B and C, upper Bella Vista, parts of East Hill and areas of Coldstream and Lavington with water.Summerfelt said the fish are trying to move upstream from Haddo Lake to Aberdeen Lake. Even the largest fish are unable to leap over the four foot tall barrier and, unable to get back into the lake, the fish eventually die. Occasionally, volunteers see the plight of the fish and try to move some of them in to the lake, Summerfelt said. For the first time this year his grandson saw the dying fish and he felt he had to do something, Summerfelt said."He said that just didn't seem right," Summerfelt said. "We went up on quads two weeks later but all the fish were dead."Although the problem is not a new one, Rick Simpson of the B.C. Wildlife Federation said local government has the power to solve the problem for good. Simpson will appear before the Greater Vernon Services Commission on Thursday to present a series of solutions.Simpson said constructing a fish ladder would be the best option but he believes it would be too expensive. Instead he suggests that the commission pay for a fish salvage operation whenever water in the spillway dips to a low level."I saw that fish ladders aren't going to be economically or technically feasible," he said. "If there's a draw down on some kind of planned basis there isn't any reason a fish technologist or fish biologist couldn't oversee a fish salvage."The water utility already has a watershed management plan in place and Simpson said a fish salvage would just be another aspect of preserving the watershed. He said there are many local members of the wildlife federation who would be willing to transport the fish back to the lake each year. "We'll work with anybody on a solution," he said. "We're not just going to come and lay this problem on their hands and walk away."Fish salvages are done frequently when a nearby construction project has an impact on a nearby creek, Simpson said. He said he doesn't understand why this problem has been allowed to continue for so long."I'm just surprised the provincial government and federal government haven't been insisting on (fish salvage)," he said.Simpson said he has been involved in fish habitat projects since 1981. Although he is only a volunteer Simpson said he has a passion for fish."I'm a guy that just seems to think that fish are kind of cool," he said. "You can teach a lot of lessons if you look at the life cycle of the fish we have around here."