A Burnaby creek has been hit by yet another spill, this time at Byrne Creek.
The spill was documented by local resident and photographer Paul Cipywnyk in the photo attached to this story, in which the creek looks all white.
Cipywnyk said the City of Burnaby has been contacted.
The NOW contacted the city for comment.
"The City was alerted to a potential spill in Byrne Creek last Thursday afternoon, and immediately dispatched staff from our Climate Action and Energy division to investigate," said an email from the City of Burnaby. "City staff engaged with the Ministry of Environment on investigation and clean-up measures, and the province has since taken the lead."
The good news is that the spill might not have actually killed any fish, Cipywnyk said.
“We didn’t see any dead fish,” he said. “This has happened before and while concerning, perhaps not deadly.”
The issue of pollution in urban creeks in Burnaby goes back decades as the city has grown.
The Brunette River has been the site of multiple protests – and arrests – as people protest the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project cutting down more than 1,300 trees along the river, potentially causing damage to the water system.
Then there is Stoney Creek, a water system that straddles eastern Burnaby and Coquitlam, with multiple spills caused by construction and overflows from an aging sewer system.
The overflows near Stoney Creek have prompted Metro Vancouver to include expanding the nearby Stoney Creek trunk sewer system as part of its proposed 2022-2026 Capital Plan, with modelling currently underway to identify bottlenecks.
“Is this not illegal?” asked area resident George Kovacic, in a letter to the NOW back in February after another spill in Stoney Creek. “Stoney Creek is home to salmon spawning grounds, endangered nooksack dace and other endangered wildlife. Why are our elected officials/politicians not able to solve these dumps and spewing sewage? Why are our civil servants not able to implement solutions that stop the spewing sewage and dumps? What’s wrong? Is it too much to ask that there is no spewing sewage and dumps into Stoney Creek?”
