For years, local streamkeepers have been raising concerns about salt leaching into Stoney Creek from SFU's salt shed, but the latest information from an environmental consulting company shows the old shed site is not the culprit.
SFU's salt shed used to be on the south side of Burnaby Mountain, near the headwaters of Stoney Creek. The salt is used to clear snowy roads in winter, and runoff from the old storage area was thought to be leaching into Stoney Creek. The university was prompted to move the shed because salt levels were high enough to be lethal to aquatic life in some areas.
"What (EBA Engineering Consultants) found through their fairly detailed work is that water that's actually flowing through and around the land where the salt is entrained under the old salt shed site doesn't go into Stoney Creek, it runs over to Silver Creek," said Lee Gavel, chief facilities officer at SFU. "So, that's the first thing that was kind of a surprise to us all."
Silver Creek runs down Burnaby Mountain and drains into the Brunette River. Stoney Creek does too, but it's more to the east.
No one is disputing there are inordinate amounts of salt in Stoney Creek, but Gavel suspects it's coming from the roads, not the old salt shed site.
"I can only assume (it) comes from the normal salt runoff from Gaglardi Way, Broadway, our parking lots. It would be every road that runs and drains into Stoney Creek," he said. "Every road in this province uses salt in the interest of public safety. There's got to be a balance between that interest and the environmental interest, and we'll do our best to rationalize those two interests."
Alan James of the Stoney Creek Environment Committee isn't entirely convinced that road wash is the culprit.
"No, it's definitely not the salt they spread for safety's sake, because there is salt spread all throughout the area, and the other sites that are monitored do not have that high level of salt," he said.
Volunteers from the committee regularly monitor water quality in Stoney Creek, and James said high levels of salt are found throughout summer.
"It's highest in the summer, when there is no salt being spread on the roads," he said. "I'm baffled as to how they can say the salt in the groundwater isn't getting into the creek, and I'm hoping sometime in April . we can ask them those details."
EBA Engineering Consultants outlined a contaminated area south of the old shed site, measuring about 25 metres in radius and 6.6 metres deep. There's a patch of contaminated groundwater as well, measuring about 1,400 cubic metres.
James wants SFU to remediate the contaminated soil anyway, but SFU is under no legal obligation to do so unless they disturb the site.
However, Gavel said the university would like to build a bio-fuel plant there, and that work would trigger the need to remediate.
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