Short Story
The West Credit River is home to one of the few remaining self-sustaining native Brook Trout populations in Southern Ontario. This thriving population is at risk from imminent discharge of sewage-effluent from the impending Town of Erin Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Once this discharge begins, the fishery and accompanying aquatic life will be stressed and their life cycles impacted. Brook Trout are the “canary in the coal mine”. They are a highly sensitive cold-water species, and their survival relies on stream temperatures no greater than 19oC – 20oC for any sustained period of time.
We are greatly concerned about losing this sensitive habitat and its biodiversity. The river is located in a UNESCO Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve, situated in the Greenbelt.
With your support to date, we have been able to successfully:
- Submit a Designation Request which called for a Federal Environmental Review of the Erin WWTP.
- Funded an Inground Infiltration Study that presented an alternative to directly discharging effluent into the West Credit River.
- Deployed over 25 temperature data loggers into effluent discharge at five Southern Ontario WWTPs. The data collected was used to advocate for changes to the Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) for the Town of Erin’s WWTP.
- Raised awareness about damage to fish habitat on private lands in an Environmental Protected Area (EPA).
Please donate today to help save the West Credit River!
Save the West Credit River
Story
Large new development projects across the province are putting the water and environment at great risk. If ever there was a place where water needs protection it is the West Credit River that flows through Belfountain and into the famed Forks of the Credit tourist destination and fishery.
The Erin Waste Water Treatment Plant will discharge a problematic and deleterious 7.2 million litres of sewage-effluent daily into the West Credit River.
We need your help to protect this pristine cold-water ecosystem and its Brook Trout and to reduce the harm to this aquatic ecosystem from wastewater.
Donate today to help us:
- Craft an Ontario Stream Assessment Protocol to document the health of the river before the WWTP is built, and in successive years as the volume of effluent discharged into the river increases.
- Measure the effluent composition in the river so we can hold plant operators and government agencies to account.
- Document the health of the Brook Trout population in the West Credit River.
- Raise awareness of the West Credit River native and natural Brook Trout population.
- Access ongoing expertise from professional resources, including hydrogeology, aquatic ecology, water testing and legal representation.
Your donations help to save the West Credit River and it’s thriving cold water ecosystem.
Help us protect the Brook Trout, donate today.
Thank you for your support!
