[Community Watershed Guidebook Table of Contents]
Recreation activities, ranging from dispersed, low-intensity backcountry hiking to concentrated, high-intensity camping and boating, can have varying effects on water quality in a community watershed. In many cases the impact on the water resource occurs only after road access into a watershed has been developed.
This section presents guidelines for reducing the negative impact of recreation access and activities in community watersheds. None of these guidelines are Code requirements, but they are recommended best management practices. The principal objectives are:
- to prevent direct fecal and sediment contamination of surface water by
- discouraging recreational access into the riparian management area (RMA) within one kilometre of the community water supply intake
- managing or limiting recreational access within the RMA beyond one kilometre of the community water supply intake
- defining appropriate types and levels of activities outside the RMA that will not result in cumulative impacts.
- to assess existing local and regional recreational opportunities and determine the requirements for recreation activities in a community watershed within the framework of a land and resource management plan (LRMP).
- Regional plans, the LRMP and community watershed planning processes will address the issue of recreation access and activities in a community watershed.
- Identify all recreational sites in a community watershed, whether legal or illegal, and manage such sites according to these guidelines.
- Existing recreation activities in a community watershed that do not conform to these guidelines, especially concentrated activities such as camping, picnicking and cabin usage within riparian areas, can create significant health risks. These activities should be modified to the greatest extent possible.
- if a non-conforming legally permitted activity cannot be modified to conform to these guidelines, a waste management plan must be developed to ensure that continued non-conforming use does not compromise water quality.
- The waste management plan must be approved by the Ministry of Health (medical health officer).
- When developing the waste management plan, confer with the water purveyor and review the water purveyor's concerns.
- Ensure that non-conforming, non-permitted activities are either removed from the watershed or are brought into compliance with these guidelines.
- In community watersheds with no recreation use, the need for recreational development will be determined by assessing existing recreational opportunities at local and regional levels, while recognizing the desires of the local community.
- If existing recreation opportunities outside the community watershed are adequate, recreational use of the community watershed should be limited to low levels of non-motorized activities and controlled by locked gates.
- Coordinate recreational plans with access management plans to determine the need for road closures.
- Small watersheds with little potential for buffering fecal contamination are at higher risk than large watersheds with greater buffering potential. Watersheds smaller than approximately 5 km2 should limit recreational use to low levels of non-motorized activity.
- Use locked gates to control vehicle access to small community watersheds. Allow access for non-motorized recreational activities only.
- Do not develop commercial backcountry horse-packing operations.
- Apply these guidelines to watersheds larger than 5 km2 at the request of the Ministry of Health if a sanitation survey conducted by the Ministry of Health indicates a high potential for negative impact on water quality.
- Discourage recreational use of the riparian management area (RMA), including the development of trails, up to 1 km upstream of a community water supply intake, to prevent direct contamination of the surface water and the rapid transport of contaminants to the community water distribution system.
- Place signs at prominent locations, such as parking lots, trail heads, community watershed gates and boat launches, notifying recreational users that they are in a community watershed and indicating whether toilet and garbage facilities are available.
- Ensure that toilets are available at locations of concentrated recreational use (e.g., picnic sites, camping areas, trail heads).
- Toilet facilities must be 100 m away from any stream or body of water and must be maintained.
- Observe the following guidelines within the riparian management area (RMA):
- Do not modify the site for recreation purposes (firepits, shelters, tables, toilet facilities, docks, boat-launch facilities, etc.) unless such modifications will reduce or prevent damage to water quality (e.g., if boating occurs on lakes, reservoirs or streams within a community watershed, it might be necessary to construct and maintain a boat launch facility to reduce bank disturbance).
- Restrict trail development to more than 15 m from any stream or lake, except where the trail crosses a stream.
- Avoid locating facilities for recreational swimming (e.g., beaches, change houses) in reservoirs, lakes and rivers in community watersheds.
- Herbicide use for plant control in recreational areas (e.g., along hiking or cross-country ski trails) should be consistent with the guidelines in section 13 "Pesticide management."
- Locate parking facilities for trailheads, day-use and camping in community watersheds further than 50 m from a stream or lake.
- If horse corrals are required, locate them further than 50 m from a stream or lake. Ensure that drainage from corrals does not enter any stream or lake.
- Backcountry recreational users (e.g., fly-in skiing, backpacking, snowmobile) are responsible for removing their garbage.
A spring is an underground source of water that emerges naturally at the ground surface; it can be intermittent or perennial. Springs are fed by subsurface flow from a source area. The source area is the area of land that contributes water to the spring through infiltration and percolation of rain and surface runoff. The source area is comprised of a recharge area, in which there is a net downward movement of water, and a discharge area, in which the net movement of water is upward, resulting in the emergence of the spring at the ground surface.
Source areas are often difficult to identify, either from maps or through field reconnaissance. As a result, inappropriate use of a water resource upslope can have inadvertent effects. Activities that influence infiltration in a source area, or activities that interrupt subsurface flow, may adversely affect spring discharge. Activities that introduce potential contaminants into the source area, or which occur in close proximity to the spring, may pose a risk to water quality.
In many cases, because of the absence of streams and a definable watershed, the presence of thedownslope community water use may not be obvious to the upslope forest or range developer. Thepurpose of this section is to provide forestry practices guidelines that are intended to reduce the potential for water quality and quantity impacts on springs used as community water supply.
Springs licensed as waterworks or licensed for water user communities can be designated as community watersheds by agreement between the Ministry of Forests regional manager and the designated environment official (see section 2 "Classification and mapping"). If the source area is designated as a community watershed, then all of the Code regulations and this guidebook would apply. This may be a desirable classification for community water supply springs with relatively large source areas.
However, in many cases, it may be more practical for source areas to be established as sensitive areas (see section 3.1 "Strategic planning—Sensitive areas" and Higher Level Plans: Policy and Procedures). The district manager can then decide which portions of this guidebook are relevant to the source area.
Watercourses and the watershed area (i.e., source area) of any designated community watershed should be mapped at a scale that will show the watershed boundaries (see section 2 "Classification and mapping"). Information on identifying and defining spring source areas is available in Defining the Source Area of Water Supply Springs (1996), Hydrology Branch, Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks.
- If the spring is designated as a community watershed, and if the BC Environment Water Quality Branch has established water quality objectives for the spring, any road construction, maintenance, or deactivation activities; any pesticide or fertilizer use, and any range activity must not cause the water quality at the intake to exceed those objectives. The polluting activity must cease until remedial action is taken to restore water quality (see section 5 "Water quality monitoring").
- In a community watershed, no forest harvesting can take place within 100 m upslope of the water supply intake.
- Limit the rate of cut in the catchment areas above springs to an equivalent clearcut area (ECA) of less than 20 per cent at any one time.
- Practise minimum site disturbance because it is easy to disrupt shallow flow systems that supply springs. Excavated or bladed trails should not interfere with the subsurface flow paths of any drainage area that contributes to a spring.
- Timber harvesting and silviculture activities should not encourage the conversion of stands to deeper rooted or hydrophilic species. This guideline is intended to prevent an increase in water transpiration by plants in the spring source, which could reduce the water yield for the community water supply.
- Limit roads, landings and other detrimental site disturbance to no more than five per cent of the total source area to maintain the infiltration capacity of the spring source area and reduce flow disruption.
- Do not locate roads within a 100 m radius upslope of the community water intake unless a designated environment official agrees that locating the road closer would better meet the water quality objectives.
- A road in a community watershed must not interfere with the subsurface flow paths of a drainage area that contributes to a spring. Avoid ditches whenever possible in favor of outsloped roads. Ditches and culverts should be located to maintain all subsurface flow paths. Consider using coarse shot rock whenever road fill is used to facilitate cross drainage through the fill material.
- Seepage ways and ephemeral streams should have separate culverts. Place cross drain culverts at double the density for normal road construction, particularly in areas of obvious groundwater seepage. Use French drains in seepage areas.
- Avoid blasting wherever possible. Blasting can disrupt flow patterns in spring source areas. Use minimum charges with millisecond delays to reduce ground disturbance.
- Avoid removing aggregate. Gravel deposits are often significant spring recharge sites.
- Do not apply broadcast fertilizer closer than 100 m upslope of a community water supply intake.
- In a community watershed maintain a 10 m fertilizer-free zone around all permanent and ephemeral streams visible from the air.
- Avoid applying broadcast fertilizer to an entire spring source area because many springs have shallow near-surface flow systems that are not easily detected. No more than 30 per cent of a spring source area should be receive broadcast treatment in one year.
- Do not apply pesticides within 100 m upslope of a community water intake.
- Maintain the 10 m pesticide-free zone around all perennial, ephemeral or discontinuous channels in the source area. Also maintain a pesticide-free zone around any obvious seepage zones.
Avoid aerial application of pesticides in spring source areas because of the difficulty in locating non-surface flow systems. The onus is on the proponent to undertake a thorough field check for discontinuous spring source areas.
