FOCUS ON:
Earth Observation essential for geohazard mitigation
More than 250 scientists from around the world gathered for a five-day workshop at ESA's Earth Observation Centre in Frascati.
News Flash
Upcoming Events
Resources & Tools
Miramichi, New-Brunswick
At a GlanceThe Miramichi River's estuary portion is over 300 km2. This project works on a 34 km² target area. The Sanitary Shellfish Project aims at improving water quality for shellfish harvesting, by identifying and remediating sources of pollution. |
The impact of the Miramichi River Environmental Assessment Committee's Sanitary Shellfish Project has the potential to boost a multi-million dollar shellfish industry.
Beginning in 2001, MREAC developed this GIS pilot project to target water quality for shellfish harvesting by identifying and assisting in the remediation of pollution sources in a 34 km2 area of the Miramichi River. Early success has already enabled MREAC to open up a 15 km2 area to shellfish harvesting.
"With shellfish, water quality has to be extremely good," says Harry Collins, Executive Director of MREAC. Federal environmental standards for water quality and in the meat counts of oysters or clams must be met, so MREAC has been involved in sampling both water and shell stock, as well as mapping areas for point-source pollution.
The target area is good oyster producing habitat and as a premium product in the shellfish industry, this project could have an enormous economic impact. "The Miramichi estuary is 300 square kilometres," explains Mr. Collins, "but even with a 34 km2 area opened up, leases are in the order of 15-20 hectares, so you're talking economic potential that is indeed exciting."
A major source of water pollution came from inadequate municipal water and wastewater treatment facilities, as well as from boats and land-based pollution sources, such as failing septic systems. "The sewage facilities on the north side of the City of Miramichi have now been corrected and we've been able to detect, through our sampling, that there has been improvement upstream of the shellfish closure line," Mr. Collins explains. On the south side, the first cell of a new water treatment plant is expected to open soon and will also reduce upstream contaminants.
"This gives us more incentive to do whatever we can to eliminate land-based contaminants from failing septic systems or other problems on the perimeter of the target areas," Mr. Collins says. As an example, MREAC endorses a stewardship program called "Living by Water" that encourages cottage owners to allow natural vegetation to grow back in to both stabilize and buffer the shoreline. This not only helps to reduce erosion, but also allows for a certain amount of natural filtration of contaminants.
Daryl Sullivan is MREAC's environmental technologist, trained in GIS. "I had no prior training," he says, "and it was difficult at first, like learning a whole new language." GeoConnections' Sustainable Communities Initiative helped finance the training required for Mr. Sullivan, and also provided funding for hardware, software and data. The Province of New Brunswick, as one of MREAC's supporting partners, donated map tiles. "Each of those would have come at a cost if we had to purchase them," says Mr. Collins.
MREAC also credits the project's success to its long-time partnership with the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Coalition on Sustainability, which provided mentoring assistance when Mr. Sullivan was learning GIS. "We've been connected with the Coalition right from its inception, and we're hoping to continue work with them on a striped bass project, which is a huge issue on the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence because of the fragility of the stock," says Mr. Collins. The Miramichi River has the only spawning area for striped bass in the Southern Gulf.
Mr. Collins says that, although MREAC considered GIS as a great tool, it did not fully realize how challenging the technology was until they began to use it. "We had a bit of a false start in the 1990s, but we didn't make as much use of that as we would have liked to have done." The Coalition was the organization that first approached SCI, and offered the project to MREAC and other coalition partners. MREAC jumped at the chance.
In addition to the Sanitary Shellfish Project, MREAC delivers 21 other programs, ranging from a Swim Watch that monitors water quality for swimming, a River/Air Watch program, and several waste stream management programs. "The waste stream programs are very applicable to GIS, and Daryl will be on top of the mapping for this field season," Mr. Collins says. "We were frustrated for a number of years not having the capability or support to track our work on water quality problems. With this project, it was a matter of taking the plunge into GIS technology and SCI allowed us to do that."