Columbia River Renaissance
"Today, due to remediation, extensive renovations and emission controls the Columbia river has made a dramatic comeback to emerge as one of the best wild rainbow trout fisheries in western Canada."
For 50 kilometres, in the southeastern corner of BC, the Columbia River flows unimpeded from Castlegar to the US border in what is one of the last free flowing stretches of the river. It is home to over 23 species of fish and is most notable for its incredible rainbow trout fishery. While a 2001 study by BC Hydro found a variety of trout species and some hybridization, one species in particular stands out. The Columbia River Redband Rainbow Trout is unique in that it is a river-locked steelhead that, after dams blocked its return to the sea, has adapted from its anadromous ancestors to become a prized resident Columbia rainbow. Their chrome torpedo bodies, brilliant red streak, powerful runs and leaping acrobatics reflect their steelhead heritage in every way. Today it is not unheard of catching rainbow that weigh well over 10 pounds.
The success of the Columbia river fishery can be attributed to a massive environmental initiative begun 20 years ago. Over the years, extensive pollution from a smelter, a pulp mill, a sawmill, logging and agricultural practices and inconsistent releases from dams severely affected the fishery as well as air and soil quality of the area.
The Columbia River Compromised
As recent as 1999 the Columbia River was on the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC's ‘Ten Most Endangered Rivers' list. Inadequate water flows from the Keenleyside and Brilliant dams north of Castlegar had adversely impacted fish but years of industrial pollution from Trail's Teck Cominco smelter and Castlegar's Celgar Pulp Mill (now Zellstoff Celgar Ltd.) were also contributors to its poor state.
The extent of the pollution was dramatic. Tests done on rainbow trout in May 1980 by the BC Ministry of Water, Land, and Air Protection (BCWLAP) reveal an elevated mercury level twice the recommended safety threshold of 0.5 ppm. Cominco documents show that from 1980 to 1996, average discharges for dissolved metals were as high as 40 pounds per day of arsenic, 136 pounds of cadmium, 440 pounds of lead, 16,280 pounds a day of zinc and 9 pounds of mercury. Furthermore, a 1999 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study claimed that between 1994 and 1997 the Trail Smelter out polluted all US companies reporting discharges.
Celgar too made their mark on the Columbia river since it first began operations in 1961. During the construction of a new mill in the early 90's, studies by the Columbia River Integrated Environmental Monitoring Program (CRIEMP) reveal that the effluent from the mill was acutely toxic to rainbow trout. Chlorinated dioxins and furans, although not detectable in the water column, were present in sediments from all stations below Celgar at concentrations that exceeded the Sediment Quality Objectives established for the Columbia River.
