A 50-year plan to control an urban creek that crosses through Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam is now policy — after a 10-year wait.
Last Monday, Coquitlam city council OK’d the final report of the Maple Creek Integrated Watershed Management Plan (IWMP) that aims to improve water quality, reduce flooding and make the creek more fish-friendly, among other things.
The document was green-lighted by PoCo city council in April and plans are now underway to update its Maple Creek drainage pump station, which is near Riverbend Drive.
Most of the capital updates for Maple Creek are the responsibility of PoCo; however, Coquitlam is on the hook for:
- $350,000 for a fish-friendly culvert update, at the end of Ozada Avenue
- $200,000 to $2 million to implement creek base flow augmentation alternatives (costs will be refined after a study)
- up to $1 million to change the Ozada diversion operation and upgrade two culverts near Maple Creek middle school
10TH WATERSHED PLAN
The Maple Creek IWMP, which cost $11.5 million to produce, is the tenth IWMP for Coquitlam. The others documents address watersheds for Stoney; Austin/Rochester; Nelson; Como; Chines; Mundy; Scott/Hoy; Hyde and Partington.
An eleventh IWMP will be done when the Hazel-Coy neighbourhood, at the top of Burke Mountain, gets underway as part of the Northwest Burke vision, wrote Mark Zaborniak, acting general manager of engineering and public works, in his report for the July 26 council meeting.
The Brunette, Fraser and Colony Farm watersheds have different strategies for drainage while the Lougheed Wetland Watershed will be handled through the redevelopment of the Riverview lands, Zaborniak wrote. The Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable manages the work for that major watercourse.
Coquitlam and PoCo started the Maple Creek IWMP in 2011; it was mostly completed in 2012.
— with files from Diane Strandberg
