Dire warnings for Nottawasaga River

By Morgan Ian Adams Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin 

WASAGA BEACH — Poor water quality and upstream development could have dire consequences for the recreational fishery in the lower end of the Nottawasaga River.

That’s according to Gary Christie, president of the Nottawasaga Steelheaders, one of three speakers presented by AWARE Simcoe at the Wasaga Christian Church Hall on Saturday morning, as the ratepayers’ group hosted a session on the health of the river that drains most of the watershed in Simcoe County.

“The fish are a barometer of what’s happening in the rivers and in the lakes,” Christie told the crowd of about 40, which included several municipal politicians and candidates from the surrounding communities.

Christie said in the last several years, the club — formed in 1993 — has been seeing smaller fish, and fewer fish at the bottom of the river.

The club has been involved with stream rehabilitation projects, logjam removal, and the construction of fish lifts in the river.

The lower reaches of the Nottawasaga received a ‘poor’ rating in a recent report from the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority, as the conservation authority determined water quality and stream habitat in the Lower Nottawasaga River subwatershed ranged from “below potential” to “impaired.”

According to the NVCA, the main river exhibits below-potential stream health, bordering on impaired conditions due to high nutrient levels from upstream and tributary inputs. The NVCA also noted dense aquatic plant and algae growth, associated with high nutrients, a abundant through urban Wasaga Beach.

The Steelheaders are taking part in a four-year study to examine fish in the river, and Christie noted the steelhead trout being measured are coming in a few inches shorter than the usual 32-to-33 inches in length for a spawning fish.

“More and more, we’re seeing fish that are 30 inches or less, and part of that is the health of the river,” he said.

It’s not just steelhead, he added, as anglers are seeing changes in a variety of fish in the river, including brook trout, rainbow trout, walleye, and sturgeon.

“This was one of the greatest fisheries… people would travel around the world to go to it, and we’re losing it because of the water quality,” he said.

The river also faces challenges from proposed development in Midhurst; effluent from those projects would flow into Willow Creek, and into the Minesing Wetlands. That could lead to higher nutrient loads into the river system, said Christie, resulting in higher algae growth.

And when the algae dies off, he said, that sucks oxygen out of the water, and creates a toxin that’s ingested by aquatic life, including the fish and birds.

That’s what created a massive die-off of fish and birds two years ago along the eastern shore of Georgian Bay, said Christie.

“As you start to change the watershed, you change the survivability of the fish,” said Christie, who has been coming to Wasaga Beach since the late 1960s to fish. “What happens in Midhurst is going to impact the wetland, impact the river, and impact you.”

He also warned that existing water treatment plants aren’t able to properly process some things, or prevent them from getting into the water system, such as pharmaceuticals, sweetners, and plastic microbeads — all of which is working its way into the food chain.

The other speakers at the AWARE meeting were Don Haley is a former senior project manager of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, and Midhurst Ratepayers Association president David Strachan; the association is fighting the Midhurst Secondary Plan that would allow an additional 4,000 homes in the community northwest of Barrie