Habitat pond

The habitat pond is one of several features designed to convey and store water that are located in the Richardson Side Rd - Terry Fox area of the wetland.

The pond was designed to:

• increase complexity with respect to channel and floodplain morphology;

• increase in-channel complexity with regards to substrate (channel bed materials);

• increase riparian vegetation to provide shading/bank stabilization of the channel within the restored block;

• addition of overwintering habitat for resident fish. AECOM page 4

The 19 March 2014 CRRP Design Brief Addendum changed the June 2013 design, which was subsequently changed again for the 6 July 2015 Tender. The Design Brief Addendum Pg 7 stated:

In discussion with MNR, DFO and MVCA staff it was determined that there is no potential for the development of pike habitat in the system from Richardson Side Road to Hazeldean Road and that a compensation ratio of 1.5 for lost fish habitat due to the infilling of the old Carp River channel would be more than satisfied by the proposed enhanced fish habitat. This includes: development of the new channel (referring to the Carp River), with riffle and pool sequences; a bio-engineered bank stabilized by riparian plantings and sod-blocks/brush mattresses where necessary, and a single revised Habitat Pond 7 (HP7), immediately upstream of the Richardson Side Road, where the water level is controlled by a rock weir.

The habitat pond has shallow and deep cells with an overall surface area of 15,000m². with an outlet invert of 91.75m. The most downstream cell is 3.75m deep while the upstream cell is 2.0m deep. The cells are permanently connected to the new river channel,upstream of a riffle, by a small non-perforated tile drain (below diagram) connected to the southerly cell of the pond that promotes both summertime and wintertime circulation in the pond and that the bottoms of the cells are connected by a small rock-filled French drain to promote maintenance of wintertime flow.

click map to enlarge

Pond flora

Monitoring

In the City's 2011 WEPP Report (page 1) it's stated that one of the restoration aims was to enhance aquatic and terrestrial habitat. Consequently a series of environmental monitoring activities were conducted in 2010 and 2011 on the Carp River, Feedmill Creek and Poole Creek by the City of Ottawa’s Water Environment Protection Program (WEPP). The monitoring was undertaken to document the pre-construction condition of aquatic indicators in the below table that could be used to assess the effectiveness of stream restoration. The littoral and and riparian zones will be monitored according to the indicators in the below table.

Monitoring should consider compliance with all timing windows identified by permits and approvals from DFO, MNR, MVC, MOE, Ottawa and others. (Priority of work and operational constraints - July 2015)

References

• .CRRP tender specs related to habitat pond

• 2014 - Carp River Restoration Design Brief – ADDENDUM

• Carp River, Feedmill Creek and Poole Creek Aquatic Habitat Restoration Monitoring Report – 2011

• Habitat pond monitoring requirements