FISH HABITAT COMPENSATION PLAN - PRECONSTRUCTION BASELINE INVENTORIES AND DESIGN REFINEMENT July 2010 6806.031 Prepared for: Prepared by: NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. TERA Environmental Consultants Suite 1100, 815 - 8th Avenue S.W. Calgary, Alberta T2P 3P2 A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of TransCanada PipeLines Limited Ph: 403-265-2885 Calgary, Alberta NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. Preconstruction Baseline Inventories and Design Refinement Groundbirch Mainline Project July 2010 / 6806.031 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1.0 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................. 1 2.0 OBJECTIVES................................................................................................................................... 5 3.0 METHODS ....................................................................................................................................... 5 3.1 Habitat Assessment ............................................................................................................ 6 3.2 Habitat Mapping and Photo Documentation ....................................................................... 6 3.3 Fish Inventory...................................................................................................................... 7 3.4 Timing ................................................................................................................................. 7 4.0 RESULTS......................................................................................................................................... 8 4.1 Habitat Assessment ............................................................................................................ 8 4.1.1 Pouce Coupe River Control Site 1......................................................................... 8 4.1.2 Pouce Coupe River Control Site 2......................................................................... 8 4.1.3 Pouce Coupe River Pipeline Crossing Site – Treatment Site................................ 9 4.1.4 Kiskatinaw River Control Site 1.............................................................................. 9 4.1.5 Kiskatinaw River Pipeline Crossing Site – Treatment Site .................................. 10 4.2 Habitat Mapping and Photo Documentation ..................................................................... 10 4.3 Fish Inventory.................................................................................................................... 13 4.3.1 Pouce Coupe River Control Site 1....................................................................... 13 4.3.2 Pouce Coupe River Control Site 2....................................................................... 14 4.3.3 Pouce Coupe River Pipeline Crossing Site – Treatment Site.............................. 14 4.3.4 Kiskatinaw River Control Site 1............................................................................ 15 4.3.5 Kiskatinaw River Pipeline Crossing Site – Treatment Site .................................. 15 5.0 DESIGN REFINEMENTS............................................................................................................... 17 5.1 Effectiveness Monitoring................................................................................................... 24 6.0 REFERENCES............................................................................................................................... 25 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A Site Photoplates...............................................................................................................A-1 Appendix B Habitat Data Summary.....................................................................................................B-1 Appendix C Fish Inventory Summary ................................................................................................. C-1 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Regional Location of Major Watercourse Crossings........................................................... 2 Figure 2 Pouce Coupe River Site Locations ..................................................................................... 3 Figure 3 Kiskatinaw River Site Locations.......................................................................................... 4 Figure 4 Pouce Coupe River Treatment Site Detail........................................................................ 11 Figure 5 Kiskatinaw River Treatment Site Detail............................................................................. 12 Page i NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. Preconstruction Baseline Inventories and Design Refinement Groundbirch Mainline Project July 2010 / 6806.031 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Site Locations and Descriptions.......................................................................................... 6 Table 2 Summary of Fish Sampling Results for the Pouce Coupe River Control Site 1 ............... 13 Table 3 Summary of Fish Sampling Results for the Pouce Coupe River Control Site 2 ............... 14 Table 4 Summary of Fish Sampling Results for the Pouce Coupe River Pipeline Crossing Site..................................................................................................................... 14 Table 5 Summary of Fish Sampling Results for the Kiskatinaw River Control Site 1.................... 15 Table 6 Summary of Fish Sampling Results for the Kiskatinaw River Treatment Site.................. 16 Table 7 Summary of Proposed Enhancement Measures at the Treatment Sites ......................... 17 Table 8 Performance Rating Criteria From Pattenden et al. (1998) Used to Evaluate Instream Habitat Structures. ............................................................................................. 24 Table B-1 Summary of Habitat Inventory for Kiskatinaw River at the Right-of-Way ........................B-2 Table B-2 Summary of Habitat Inventory for Pouce Coupe River at the Right-of-Way....................B-4 Table C-1 Fish Sampling Results for the Kiskatinaw River and Pouce Coupe River...................... C-2 LIST OF DRAWINGS Drawing 1 Compensation Plan – Watercourse Contingency Crossing – KP 58.8 Kiskatinaw River (13-29-78-17 W6M)............................................................................... 18 Drawing 2 Compensation Plan – Watercourse Crossing – KP 22.7 Pouce Coupe River (12-35-78-14 W6M)........................................................................................................... 19 Drawing 3 Newbury Rock Riffle.......................................................................................................... 20 Drawing 4 Typical Rock Clusters ....................................................................................................... 21 Drawing 5 Streambank Protection – Vegetated Riprap 1 .................................................................. 22 Drawing 6 Streambank Protection – Vegetated Riprap 2 – Pole Plantings ....................................... 23 Page ii NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. Preconstruction Baseline Inventories and Design Refinement Groundbirch Mainline Project July 2010 / 6806.031 1.0 INTRODUCTION NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL), a wholly owned subsidiary of TransCanada PipeLines Limited (TransCanada), is constructing the Groundbirch Mainline Project (the Project) between the Groundbirch area in British Columbia (BC) and the Gordondale area in Alberta. NGTL received approval from the National Energy Board (NEB) under Section 52 of the NEB Act on March 4, 2010 and construction is scheduled to commence in early August 2010. NGTL will be constructing the Project to transport natural gas from the Groundbirch Receipt Meter Station in 2-3-79-19 W6M located 37.2 km northwest of the city of Dawson Creek, BC to tie in with the Alberta System in 2-12-79-12 W6M. The Project will consist of approximately 77 km of 914 mm (NPS 36) O.D. natural gas pipeline, block valves and side valves, and valves and blind flanges to accommodate the potential installation of launcher and receiver facilities. Facilities consist of the Groundbirch, Tremblay, Tremblay No. 2 and Tremblay No. 3 Receipt Meter stations which will include custody transfer metering, communication and control systems and associated piping and valves. The permanent pipeline right-of- way will be 20 m wide with an additional 19 m of construction workspace on agricultural lands and forested Crown lands. The Project includes construction of crossings at nine watercourses in BC and six watercourses in Alberta (TERA Environmental Consultants [TERA] 2009a). Although it is anticipated that most of the pipeline and vehicle crossings at watercourses that provide fish habitat can be constructed under one of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Operational Statements (OS), the Pacific Region of DFO determined that construction of some of the crossings in BC have the potential to cause a harmful alteration, disruption or destruction (HADD) of fish habitat. They required NGTL to provide a conceptual fish habitat compensation plan (FHCP) (DFO 2009). The conceptual FHCP was needed to address potential HADDs that were likely to occur in the event proposed contingency pipeline crossings on either the Kiskatinaw or Pouce Coupe rivers were required. Figure 1 shows a map of the regional location, while Figures 2 and 3 provide an overview of site locations. NGTL contracted TERA to develop a conceptual FHCP which was submitted to DFO in November 2009 (TERA 2009b). The conceptual FHCP was accepted by