SSI FreshWater Catalogue

SSI, NORTH Watersheds

"1982" Watershed "Notes"

- NW "Southey Bay, Stone Cutters Bay" Area -

Last Update, 2024/01/12

SSI North Area - overview watersheds (colour coded, CRD, 2018) & watershed note areas

North Island, "1982" Watershed

From our ongoing North Island, Freshwater Cataloguing - notes on the (unnamed) "1982" watershed area. Cf. the SSI FWC webmap for field locations and charted information (where available).

The content of these "Notes" entries is dependant on the information that is currently available, from FWC volunteer work, FWC reporting or from other sources. We need volunteers in this area.

Note - if you have additional insights into this area (the watershed, it's creeks or wetlands), can help with site(s) access, or are interested in being involved in data collection for this project area, please contact the SSIFWC Project Lead.

For now these notes draw heavily on extracts from our monthly FWC "Which Creek Is It" Competition, from our Salt Spring Island FreshWater Catalogue Watershed Stewardship Group Facebook page, with "field note" addendums where additional information has become available. Additional volunteer resources will enable us to do more!

General Watershed & FWC Creek Information:

The more obvious of the two November, 2023 WCIT competition FWC creeks (same watershed) was a Creek-to-be-named XXVIII, located close to the end of McGill Road in the 1982 watershed; a more remote rural-residential watershed study area. A second potential, ephemeral creek (on Southey Road) in the WCIT image set is associated with heavily modified land and road drainage changes. Province and local agency maps indicate no surface creeks in this watershed area, though there are local signs of ephemeral(?) creeks.

Local watershed area maps and creek images

"1982" Watershed & Creek

The 1982 watershed (NORTH ISLAND) is moderate in size, < 466 hectares (1150 acres) in size (similar in size to the the Weston Creek and Cape Keppel watershed area (CENTRAL, SOUTH island respectively).

The 1982 watershed as defined receives < 4,237,000,000 litres (1,119,297,513 gallons) of rainfall (precipitation, or surface water) per annum.
Creek-to-be-named XXXVIII creek's sea outfall feeds into the marine channel separating SSI from Penelakut Island.
Recent groundwater recharge potential mapping of this watershed area suggests relatively low levels of precipitation and relatively moderate levels of groundwater recharge and moderate to good aquifer recharge potential (GW Solutions, 2019, cf planned 2024 update). With the exception of the northern (Southey Point) tip of the area saline intrusion risks in the area are considered low (Klassen & Allen, 2016)
There are no known records of surface flow (seasonal/year-round) or creek chemistry in this creek/watershed area. It is not clear if any of the creek systems were/are perennial

The watersheds surface creek drainage system (flow, chemistry) are likely to be significantly influenced by various land modifications and groundwater offtakes across this rural residential watershed area.

The 1982 watershed has >95 subsurface wells (not all wells may be registered) and a single "Simpson" Spring upstream of Creek-to-be-named XXXXIII may (seasonally) support surface flow in this creek system.

Significant work is required to map and ground-truth 1982 watershed creek systems, their seasonal(?) flow and in-creek chemistry characteristics. Interested - contact the SSIFWC project lead.

Historical & Other Watershed Insights:

TBD

Note - any other local insights, or interested in contributing to the historical/other notes on our islands' watersheds, please contact the SSIFWC Project Lead.

FWC "Citizen Science" Watershed Notes - Reporting:

We have no SSIFWC data collection within this Creek-to-be-named XXXVIII, nor any surface data in this general 1982 watershed area. Local data collection in the area would give insights into the impact of the various area land usages on the watershed’s freshwater ecosystems, and an improved understanding of how this surface water catchment in the watershed contributes to aquifer recharge (and local discharge!) in this area…

"1982" is a candidate for gathering freshwater catalogue data for “ground-truthing” surface freshwater - groundwater recharge/baseflow interactions (watershed efficiency and hydraulic connectivity) and model for one of our island’s northern watersheds.

FWC Images and Videos:

1982 Watershed FWC field images. Note - all FreshWater Catalogue images & videos copywrite belongs with the WPS and the FWC. We are grateful for due acknowledgement of copywrite in any use or publication of these educational resources.

Other Local Area Resources:

Klassen, J., & Allen, D. M., 2016., Risk of Saltwater Intrusion in Coastal Bedrock Aquifers: Gulf Islands, BC. Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University.
GW Solutions., 2019., Salt Spring Island Groundwater Recharge Potential Mapping. Prepared for the Islands Trust.

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