Simon Fraser University may have moved its salt shed further from the headwaters of Stoney Creek, but volunteer streamkeepers still found high levels of salt throughout the summer.
"There is more salt in the ground than there was in the shed," said Alan James, spokesperson for the Stoney Creek Environment Committee.
The salt is used to clear snowy roads in winter, but the runoff from the old storage area was contaminating Stoney Creek. The university was prompted to move the shed because salt levels were high enough to be lethal to aquatic life in some areas.
"It's still that bad," James said, referring to water quality test done by volunteers throughout the summer.
"The results were that salt contamination was increasing over the period we were measuring," he said. "We're not sure whether or not it's something that has happened around the salt shed area, or whether it's just the natural increase in salt as you would expect when there's no rain to dilute the groundwater."
James said the old salt shed was not sealed.
"Whenever the salt got rained on, and for many years there was no cover on it, salt dissolved and then went into the ground," he said.
James suspects it will take 10 to 15 years to rid the area of salt.
"Even though we know it's contaminating the creek, there isn't going to be any way to turn off the salt for the creek instantly. That's just not going to happen," James added.
SFU hired an environmental engineering company to analyze the problem and come up remediation options.
Stoney Creek is home to salmon and the Nooksack dace, an endangered minnow found in only a handful of B.C. streams.
No one returned calls from SFU.
