Raincoast delivers a water quality toolbox to Metro Vancouver

Clean water is vital to people and wildlife in Metro Vancouver, providing safe drinking water, clean habitat for fish and wildlife, an abundance of recreational opportunities, and traditional food sources central to the way of life of First Nations. 

Despite its importance, clean water faces pressure from contaminants, urban developments, and floods, droughts, and fires associated with climate change. Emerging concerns in urban waters include the coho salmon-killing tire-related chemical 6PPD-quinone, hydrocarbons from cars, trucks, and vessels, pharmaceuticals from human waste, and a variety of industrial chemicals. The strength in water quality monitoring programs lies in the generation of high quality data that are comparable over time and space. 

Raincoast recently delivered a comprehensive report to Metro Vancouver which provides guidance on the management of liquid waste and road runoff for the region and its 23 member jurisdictions. This report provides the tools to track the health of urban waters, identify problem pollutants and their sources, and enable the protection and restoration of healthy urban waters for fish, wildlife, and people. 

This report details new tools that can help communities meet future operational and environmental performance goals. One important aspect of this future performance pertains to sanitary and stormwater separation and management.

Protecting water quality is everyone’s business. Contaminants from households, farms, industry, and roads enter the region’s sewer and storm sewer systems, and infiltrate urban waterways. Poor water quality degrades fish habitat, reduces recreational opportunities, and impedes Indigenous uses of aquatic ecosystems. A critical element of ensuring healthy urban waters in Metro Vancouver is an understanding of the threats to water quality, to document the sources of these threats, and to apply management approaches to protect the region’s waters. A modernized approach to liquid waste management in the region will allow Metro Vancouver and its members to contribute to partnerships, knowledge sharing, and capacity-building with First Nations through the BC Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

This report considers the emerging issues facing Metro Vancouver and its member jurisdictions, and proposes a water quality management roadmap for the coming decade. Important considerations herein are i) measures for drainage system performance that illustrate the value of engineering investments, ii) forensic tools to identify sanitary infiltration in stormwater and urban waters, and iii) the importance of a collaborative approach to water quality monitoring that helps to deliver healthy urban waters to the MV community and beyond. 

Healthy urban waters in Metro Vancouver – here we come!

Citation

Peter S. Ross, Marie Noel, Melany Sanchez and Samantha Scott. 2026. Water quality monitoring strategies for Metro Vancouver: A framework that informs source identification and drainage system performance. Prepared for Metro Vancouver by Raincoast Conservation. https://metrovancouver.org/services/liquid-waste/Documents/water-quality-monitoring-strategies-metro-vancouver.pdf