The Nooksack dace is just a wee, little minnow of a fish which makes its home in the Brunette River, amongst other waterways.

But it has the potential to cause big problems for the long-awaited Burnaby Lake dredging project.

And if nothing else, it’s created a migraine of a headache for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the environment ministries of senior governments.

Unbeknownst to the four-inch-long fish, it was recently the subject of a lawsuit by environmental groups who charged DFO had unlawfully ignored information about where the Nooksack dace’s habitat is.

Under the federal Species at Risk Act, the government is responsible for identifying the habitats of endangered species to help save them. Rachel Plotkin of the David Suzuki Foundation, one of the groups involved in the legal action, said DFO had the information but removed it from its recovery strategy for the dace for no good reason, other than perhaps political ones.

The judge in the case agreed, ordering DFO to rectify the situation.

“The problem is not just about the dace, it’s a systemic problem that affects all recovery strategies,” Plotkin said from Ottawa. “It’s applicable to all [endangered] species under the act.”

A case of mistaken identity

But back to the dace.

The Nooksack dace is found in several streams that run through Langley and Abbotsford and into the Nooksack River in Washington State, hence the name.

A couple of years ago it was also found in the Brunette River that drains Burnaby Lake, said Elmer Rudolph, president of the Sapperton Fish and Game Club.

It appears it had been mistaken for years for other less-endangered varieties of dace until a Nooksack dace expert correctly identified it.

The question now is, how will the major $14-million project to dredge Burnaby Lake, upstream of the Brunette, affect the dace and other species such as coho, chum and pink salmon?

“We are somewhat concerned about that,” Rudolph said.

He’s hopeful that “silt curtains” used in a pilot dredging project about five years ago will be effective in preventing sediment from heading downstream from the lake.

Then again, he’s seen cases where partway through such projects with potential for harming fish, mitigation plans have gone awry.

“We’ve seen that so many times, many times, and you just kind of shake your head ... It may very well happen again in Burnaby Lake.”

In addition to monitoring by those involved in the dredging project, Rudolph said his New Westminster-based group will be monitoring the Brunette’s water quality themselves.

“And if we think it’s unnaturally disturbed, we’ll certainly be onto DFO and Environment Canada in a big way.”

But why should we care?

So what is the Nooksack dace and why should people care?

For one thing, it’s old, about 10,000 years old, having survived the Ice Age, said Rudolph. The only reason it’s still around is because the glaciers never quite covered the entire Lower Mainland.

As for its role in the environment, that falls under the category of the great unknown, as it does for numerous other endangered species.

“Often we don’t know until we get rid of it,” said Rudolph. Then in five or 10 years, when problems start springing up, the domino effect resulting from its loss becomes apparent.

Or it might not. Which leads environmentalists to the conclusion that the best course of action is to always proceed with caution, just in case.

As for the Burnaby Lake project, Bob Gunn of B.C. Institute of Technology’s Fish, Wildlife and Recreation program said it’s hard to know what impact it’ll have on the Nooksack dace and other fish in the Brunette.

However, the fact the dredging project has been scaled back—while Burnaby city hall awaits federal funding—will likely work in the fishes’ favour.

“I suspect potential for impact downstream is small,” Gunn said.

“Burnaby Lake essentially acts as a big sink.” It’s where the energy from water flowing into it dissipates, allowing sediment to drop out. The entire lake will act as a buffer, reducing the impact on the Brunette.

However, “I think the court decision will make DFO much more sensitive as to the issuing of final permits associated with the project,” Gunn said.

Checks and balances

For Lambert Chu, Burnaby’s director of engineering, dredging a lake is easy. Navigating through the maze of measures and requirements to protect the environment during dredging, not so much.

The project, set to start this month, will remove 200,000 cubic metres of sediment from the lake, which has been filling in over the past two decades. The goal is to prevent it from turning into a bog and turn it back into an international-standard competitive rowing course by the time work is completed in early 2011.

Contractors will use two silt curtains, with the second acting as an added buffer to prevent sediments from escaping downstream. They’ll remove any sediment contaminated with metal deposits, typical of urban pollution, mainly related to vehicle traffic, said Chu.

With some fish species currently spawning in the Brunette, DFO has established a detailed schedule outlining when the contractor can dredge in different areas of the lake to avoid impacting fish downstream.

Chu said city hall already has all the necessary environmental permits to go ahead, except for a “salvage” permit. That will allow environmental workers to literally pluck all fish and wildlife out of a dredge zone and place them on the other side of the silt curtain before starting any dredging.

And any time a dredging machine is so much as turned on, a professional biologist will be on hand to monitor for any environmental impacts, and report back to government environment officials, who will also likely make site visits.

“There’s all kinds of checks and balances in place,” said Chu.

“This is unlike any other dredging work,” he said of its environmental complexity. The city has also committed to a multi-year monitoring plan after the project is completed to watch for and mitigate any negative impacts that may crop up.

“I think this recent court case has just further reminded us that we cannot overlook the environmental component and we are very confident the plan that we have is adequate to address all the environmental issues.”

wchow@burnabynewsleader.com