The Petitcodiac River Watershed Preliminary Water Classification Report
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The Petitcodiac River Watershed Preliminary Water Classification Report By: Eric R Arseneau Project Coordinator P.O. Box 23046 Moncton, N.B., E1A 6S8 Tel (506) 384-3369 Fax (506) 854-4824 [email protected] Your Environmental Trust Fund at Work ! Votre Fonds en fiducie pour l’Environnement au Travail ! FOREWORD The summation of this report is the result of 4 years of study relating to the water quality found within the Petitcodiac River watershed. Like the environment that we live in, this is a living document. Until this report is submitted to the Minister of Environment and Local Government, the citizens residing within this watershed still have a say in what goals they see attainable in the future for this area. This document should be viewed as a road map to what lies ahead in terms of protecting, rehabilitating and maintaining all of our water resources that touch every part of our lives. As you will see in this report, some watercourses are more impacted than others. With this in mind, it is important to remember that anything can be improved as long as we put the necessary effort into it. This report would not have been possible if not for the contribution of our dedicated volunteers who gathered water samples throughout the years, taking time during their weekends to help promote this project. For this, PWMG is forever grateful. A special thanks also goes out to all the field technicians that have worked for this organization since 1997 Georges Brun, Kevin Murphy, Pascal Levesque, Annie Haché and Shawn Craig as well as the previous coordinators Isabelle Frenette and Sandra Cashin. I would also like to thank Brad Firth (DFO) for sharing with us is mapping expertise throughout the duration of the project. Last but not least, I would like to thank all of the volunteers who formed PWMG’s steering/executive committee throughout the years, Peter Sawyer, Alyre Chiasson, Jean-Guy Deveau, John Legault, Peter Poirier, Peter McLaughlin, Julia Chadwick, Vivian Beale, Marc McCaw and Terry Melanson. Finally, this project could not have taken place without the generous financial support of the New Brunswick Environmental Trust Fund and the staff from the Department of the Environment and Local Governments, thank you! 2 Petitcodiac Watershed Monitoring Group Preliminary Water Classification Report Table of Contents FOREWORD............................................................................................................................2 1.0 INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................5 1.1 CONTEXT...........................................................................................................................5 1.2 OBJECTIVES .......................................................................................................................5 2.0 WATER QUALITY AND THE CLASSIFICATION CONCEPT................................6 2.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF WATER ...........................................................................................6 2.2 FRESH WATER RESOURCE PROBLEMS...............................................................................6 2.3 CANADA WATER ACT / N.B. CLEAN WATER ACT ............................................................7 2.4 N.B. WATER CLASSIFICATION REGULATION.....................................................................8 2.5 WATERSHED APPROACH..................................................................................................11 3.0 METHODOLOGY...........................................................................................................12 3.1 THE PETITCODIAC WATERSHED MONITORING GROUP (PWMG) ....................................12 3.1.1 PWMG structure......................................................................................................12 3.3 COMMUNICATIONS / EDUCATION STRATEGY...................................................................13 3.3 STAKEHOLDER AND VOLUNTEER LIST..............................................................................13 3.4 WATER QUALITY.............................................................................................................15 3.4.1 Volunteer water quality monitoring ........................................................................15 3.4.2 Data collection .......................................................................................................16 3.4.3 Data analysis...........................................................................................................16 3.5 WATERSHED MAPPING ....................................................................................................17 4.0 THE PETITCODIAC WATERSHED IN NEW BRUNSWICK .................................19 4.1 A WATERSHED PROFILE ..................................................................................................19 4.2 CLIMATE .........................................................................................................................19 4.2.1 Air Temperature ......................................................................................................19 4.2.2 Precipitation............................................................................................................21 4.3 GEOLOGY AND SOIL TYPES .............................................................................................22 4.4 DEMOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................23 4.5 LAND USE .......................................................................................................................25 4.6 LAND OWNERSHIP ...........................................................................................................25 4.7 ECOREGIONS....................................................................................................................26 4.8 SUB-WATERSHED PLANNING UNITS................................................................................27 5.0 WATER QUALITY RESULTS FOR THE PETITCODIAC RIVER ..................28 WATERSHED ........................................................................................................................28 5.1 NORTH RIVER ..................................................................................................................28 5.2 BENNETT BROOK.............................................................................................................31 5.3 ANAGANCE RIVER...........................................................................................................34 5.4 POLLETT RIVER ...............................................................................................................36 5.5 LITTLE RIVER ..................................................................................................................39 5.6 TURTLE CREEK................................................................................................................42 5.7 MAIN STEM PETITCODIAC RIVER ....................................................................................44 5.8 MILL CREEK ....................................................................................................................47 5.9 WELDON CREEK ..............................................................................................................50 5.9.1 HALLS CREEK WATERSHED .........................................................................................52 5.9.2 West Branch Halls Creek ........................................................................................53 5.9.3 North Branch Halls Creek.......................................................................................55 5.9.4 Halls Creek (Main stem) .........................................................................................57 5.9.5 Rabbit Brook...........................................................................................................58 3 Petitcodiac Watershed Monitoring Group Preliminary Water Classification Report 5.9.6 Humphreys Brook....................................................................................................60 5.9.7 JONATHAN CREEK AND JONES LAKE ............................................................................62 5.9.8 FOX CREEK ...................................................................................................................66 6.0 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................69 8.0 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................70 7.0 APPENDICES Appendix A. Example of PWMG’s Newsletter Appendix B. Petitcodiac River Watershed station listings Appendix C. General water quality statistics, 1997-2001 Appendix D. Descriptive statistics for each sampling parameter Appendix E. Maps created by PWMG Appendix F. Water quality parameters that exceeded the Canadian Water Quality Guidelines values for the protection of aquatic life (recreational guideline for E.coli), from 1999-2001 for Jonathan Creek Appendix G. Water quality data from the Petitcodiac and Memramcook River watersheds (1997-2001) 8.0 MAPS Map A. Primary lithology of the Petitcodiac and Memramcook River Watersheds Map B. Land use within the Petitcodiac and Memramcook River Watersheds Map C. License holders within the Petitcodiac and Memramcook River Watersheds Map