For now these notes draw heavily 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!

The data collected from our FWC field work in the 2019 (RUAL) watershed consists of year-round flow and chemistry baseline data collection from key watershed creek discharges to the sea, from multiple creeks (there is no single sea-outfall from this watershed). These creeks are as follows:

• In the NE of the watershed - Ruby Alton Creek (ca. three years of data) .

• In the SE of the watershed - Lumley and Holmes creeks

In addition to key watershed creek sampling, recent 2020 onwards data collection includes chemistry sampling from a small number of shallow and deep wells in the 2019 (RUAL) area.

The 2019 (RUAL) watershed sampling investigates watershed surface water and groundwater baseflow(?) discharge to the sea - a key component to any planned watershed, or water budget, and input to validating area groundwater recharge potential models.

General Watershed & FWC Creek(s) Information:

The 2019 (Ruby Alton) watershed is located in the South island area. All 2019 creeks are located on the south side of the Fulford Valley, discharging into the sea within the harbour, or close to Isabella Island in Satellite Channel to the southeast of South Island. Ruby Alton Creek was our August, 2020 Which Creek Is It (WCIT) Facebook group competition entry and Lumley Creek our March, 2021 WCIT entry.

Historical & Other Watershed Insights:

According to the province data base none of the 2019 watershed creeks have year-round flow (and the Ruby Alton Creek does not even appear on some province maps). FWC findings to date indicate that Ruby Alton's was/is a permanent (groundwater fed) creek, with relatively healthy groundwater flow even in summer. The “jury is out” on year round stream conditions in the southern 2019 watershed “Holmes” and “Lumley” creeks being sampled, though the presence of springs at/close to these two creek locations suggests a potential source for year-round groundwater inflows...

Ruby Alton creek runs through the Ruby Alton Nature Reserve area. The creek is also known locally as Ruby’s Creek, but is formally described as Forsen Brook. The creek crosses the southern portion of the property and flows east towards Fulford Harbour. Though its flow is significantly reduced during the dry season, this creek flows year round, and supplies water to both Ruby Alton’s property and to the immediate neighbour to the north. Anecdotally evidence from Ruby Alton suggests that there was at one time an annual run of 30 to 40 salmon in the creek (IT, 2002).

From local, long term (47 years) residents living near Mountain Road and adjacent to Lumley Creek, some insights into the creek and RUAL upland watershed area:

• Lumley Creek is named after Hawaiian settlers who lived on Mountain Rd.

• The creek has a "seepy start" in a protected, upland, forest area

• Ponds on the creek, which used to freeze over (enough to skate on) every few years , have not done so for about three decades.

• The date Lumley Creek begins to run is not so variable, but the creek is now tending to stop running earlier in the year.

Lumley Creek drains from the RUAL watershed into Satellite Channel/Chute Passage to the S-SE of SSI (see map).

FWC "Citizen Science" Watershed Area Reporting:

Ruby Alton Creek at it's outfall one of several creeks in the 2109 watershed with a direct sea-outfall, as at 2020/12 we have close to three years of FWC data from this creek. Ruby Alton Creek, and Lumley and Holmes creeks to the south of the watershed, exhibit inverse relationship between water temperature and air temperature (air warm water cool and vica versa), the result of groundwater temperature remaining relatively constant during the course of the year, while air temperature changes seasonally and seasonally variable creek chemistry - clear indictions of groundwater baseflow contributions.

We now have two, regular, FWC shallow/deep well chemistry sampling sites within the watershed.

Potential groundwater inflows (“base flow”) within the 2109 (RUAL) watershed are from hardrocks - volcanic metasediments of the Sikker Group, and/or sedimentary rocks - Haslam Formation, Nanaimo Group shales, it is quite possible that the “major fault” along the south side of Fulford Harbour plays a role in contributing to groundwater inflow into the Ruby Alton Creek system.

While Ruby Alton, Lumley and Holmes creeks exhibit relatively high "summer" creek freshwater conductivity values (greater than 400 μS/cm), conductivity vs flow correlations, observed in a number of SSI creeks (background reading under development), are variable in the measured 2019 creeks. Variations in correlation may be owing to insufficient data to-date (Lumley and Homes creeks), the unsuitability of the freshwater at these sites for this correlation method, and/or an in-ability to obtain reliable and consistent year-round flow measurements at the available sample sites.

These 2019 watershed creeks, located in the southern part of the island, are predominantly sited in/drain from igneous rock suites, with a distinctive, uniformly CaHCO3, water type (Howe & Allen, 2020). Observations of higher conductivities in this 2019 area are surprising, particularly as conductivity values, plotted at an island-scale, suggest higher EC values are associated with sedimentary rocks. Moreover, typically igneous/metamorphic rocks are assumed to have lower permeability compared to sedimentary rock, this should result in less opportunity for water-rock interactions and thus lower Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and lower conductivities. It is possible that higher conductivity values from the specific rock types in the broad category of igneous and metamorphic rocks in the 2019 watershed area are the result of more intensely fractured and weathered rocks (cf. discussion in Howe and Allen).

Correlations, between 2019 watershed flow and conductivities, do suggest some scope for quantitative calculatation of seasonal variability in the groundwater baseload flow component of total flow in the creeks of the 2019 watershed area - an important component of an areal water budget for this watershed.

From the 112109 GW Consultants "Groundwater Recharge Potential" report the 2109 (RUAL) area has a very robust, and concentrated, topographic wetness (as demonstrated by the forest ecosystems present (!), though oddly aquifer recharge potential for the area is currently considered “lower”, which does not quite jive with the creeks year-round flow and "general feel" of the area, ground-truthing Groundwater Recharge input parameters may be required?

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 Images and Videos:

2019 (RUAL) watershed images. Note - all FreshWater Catalogue images & videos copywrite belongs with the WPS and the FWC. We are grateful for due acknowledgement of our copywrite in any use, or publication, of these educational resources.

Other Local Area Resources:

Want to know more about this watershed area, have a look at these local area references:

• Islands Trust, 2002., Management Plan for the Ruby Alton Nature Reserve Isabella Point, Salt Spring Island, BC.

• Olsen, J., 2019., 2014-2020 W̱ENÁ¸NEĆ Clam Garden Restoration Project Report

• GW Consultants, 2019., Salt Spring Island Groundwater Recharge Potential Report, sponsored by the IT.

• Howe K., & Allen D., 2020., Linkages between Stream Chemistry and Groundwater Chemistry, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, SFU.