Okanagan River remains on most endangered list

By Wolf Depner - Penticton Western News - March 26, 2008

The Okanagan River ranks for the eighth straight year among the most endangered rivers in British Columbia.

So says an annual report by the Outdoor Recreation Council tracking provincial rivers.

The river ranked 10th this year, down from eighth place in 2007 and 2006. The river’s worst ranking came in 2003 when the council considered it the most endangered in the province. It ranked as the second-most endangered river in 2002, the third-most in 2001 and 2004 and the seventh-most in 2005.

But if the endangered rating of the report has dropped in recent years, the report itself leaves room for plenty of improvements.

“For decades, the Okanagan River has been damaged by channelization, water extraction, urban encroachment, riparian habitat loss and the building of dams and weirs,” it states. “In many sections, it now resembles more of a ditch than a river.”

The report also blames users for mismanaging the river’s watershed, citing several examples.

“Among these were the inadequate management of groundwater, the over-allocation of water licences and the unauthorized removal of surface water,” it said.

But the report — as it has done in years past — holds up the possibility of improvement.

“On the bright side, however, a strong effort is underway to try and restore this great waterway and, while you can’t immediately turn things around for a river that has been abused for so long, some progress has definitely been made,” it said.

The river continues to be an “ideal candidate” for a major habitat restoration initiative that would include a significant “de-engineering” component, it said.

“Some of this work has already been done and, if such work continues, this could dramatically improve the state of the river,” it added.

The annual return of significant numbers of sockeye (one of only two significant remaining populations in the Columbia drainage) to the Okanagan River system also reinforces the potential of such a program and the recent re-introduction of sockeye to Skaha Lake is an “exciting” recent development, the report said.

“Over time, such a restoration initiative could improve flow regimes, enhance off channel habitat and improve fish passage,” it said.

“Riparian habitat could also be restored in many areas, which would enhance fish values as well as improve wildlife habitat for red-listed species such as the tiger salamander and western screech owl.”

The report pointed specifically to a fisheries habitat restoration project in Douglas County south of the border that could be emulated on the northern side. But the report appears to be quiet on what effect plans for a dam along the Similkameen River might have on the regional watershed.

Okanogan County officials in Washington state are studying the feasibility of a dam on the American side of the Similkameen River about eight kilometres northwest of Oroville, Wash.

The proposed 80-metre tall dam would create a reservoir whose surface area would exceed 72 square kilometres, with about half of the reservoir located in Canada, according to a report detailing the project.

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Okanagan River remains on most endangered list

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