Water Pollution Related Research In The Lower Fraser River British Columbia

Compared with other heavily-used rivers of the world the LowerFraser is still in relatively good health. However, its future isclouded with uncertainty. There is unmistakeable evidence thattoxic materials, including lead, mercury, pesticides and PCB's arebeginning to accumulate in the sediments and fish of theriver. These pollutants not only enter the river from municipalsewage treatment plants and industry but also in the storm waters thatrun off urban lands. Their control will not be as simple as just moretreatment, it will require much greater emphasis on regulation of thematerials produced and used in society today. If this valuable resource is to be preserved the administration ofpollution control in the Lower Fraser must be strengthened by insuringthat adequate information is generated about the health of the aquaticecosystem and the sources of toxic materials. This might be donemost effectively by the establishment of an Environmental ProtectionCommittee and Secretariat in the Greater Vancouver Regional Districtand a source control programme in the Greater Vancouver Sewerage andDrainage District both of which would be funded by charges on wastedischargers. These are some of the major conclusions of the Westwater ResearchCentre at the University of British Columbia, which were reported in aseries of public lectures early in 1976. This book contains thetexts of these lectures which summarize the results of a four yearprogramme of physical, chemical, biological, economic and politicalresearch into pollution control in the Lower Fraser River.

Vancouver, B.C. : Westwater Research Centre, 1976.

Fish versus Power is an environmental history of the Fraser River (British Columbia) and the attempts to dam it for power and to defend it for salmon. Amid contemporary debates over large dam development and declines in fisheries, this book offers a case study of a river basin where development decisions did not ultimately dam the river, but rather conserved its salmon. Although the case is local, its implications are global as Evenden explores the transnational forces that shaped the river, the changing knowledge and practices of science, and the role of environmental change in shaping environmental debate. The Fraser is the world's most productive salmon river; it is also a large river with enormous waterpower potential. Very few rivers in the developed world have remained undammed. On the Fraser, however, fish - not dams - triumphed, and this book seeks to explain why.