The B.C. government says although it sees some improvements in water systems they are still concerned about impacts around the Chilcotin River landslide.
At a press conference Tuesday, the Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma says the province’s immediate focus now, much like last week, is on assessing fish passage across the site of the landslide.
“We are monitoring the salmon stocks as they come into the system,” she said. “We’re assessing the Chilcotin and Fraser River banks to ensure that any additional slumping doesn’t create new challenges to fish passage.”
The minister says the province is supporting local First Nations by conducting assessments of fish abundance and fish location.
“It’s helping to inform First Nations and fisheries decisions and freshwater angling safety considerations,” Ma said.
Last week, Minister of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship Nathan Cullen said that with so much material from the landslide yet to be moved, the fish may have a hard time making their way upstream.
He said the ministry is keeping an eye on one “bottleneck” where “significant water is going through a very small area that seems to be eroding,” but salmon might not yet be able to pass.
“But Mother Nature and salmon are incredibly resilient. It may resolve itself as the water gets cleaner, as that blockage starts to diminish. And salmon, being so determined and strong, may themselves find the passage up,” said Cullen.
Connie Chapman, the executive director of water management with the Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship, says they are still seeing turbidity within the water systems but clear water has made a move down and created a reservoir, which is a couple of kilometres away from entering the landslide site.
She says she’s hopeful that soon the water will not be as turbid.
Ma acknowledged that there are videos circulating of small structures falling into the rivers.
Chapman says the province cannot confirm the scope of the damage caused by this landslide and is still investigating it.
—With files from Charles Brockman.