When a Coquitlam homeowner threw a can of paint down a storm drain last spring, a group of stream guardians could only wring their hands in frustration.

This thick mud eventually flowed downstream into a major salmon stream, and with no way to be immediately alerted to the pollution and trace its source, members of the Hoy Scott Creek Watershed Society could only watch with horror hours later the fluid clogged the waterway.

“It’s really devastating when you see it, and all the baby fish that are being killed,” said Kim Mayes, volunteer and director of the Hoy Scott Watershed Society, which has carried out water quality testing of Hoy Creek. for the past. year.

The paint is deadly to salmon-bearing streams, like Hoy Creek, which runs through downtown Coquitlam and joins Scott Creek, eventually emptying into the Coquitlam River.

In high concentrations, the paint can form a plastic layer of latex on fine sand and gravel; in a more dilute form, it can smother fish and invertebrates further downstream.

Eventually, the source of the painting was found, thanks to someone taking a photo of the dumper.

Now, however, the City of Coquitlam can address these issues immediately and even fine violators.

Over the next few weeks, crews will install a Flowlink that will measure water quality variables and alert staff to any issues.

Jonathan Helmus, the city’s utility manager, said the equipment, from a Coquitlam-based company, will be installed next month and used to determine water quality in real time.

“Getting live data tells a bit more about the story and if there are spills we can set up the system to get alerts and then staff can respond immediately, instead of waiting a day or two for someone to report it.”

The polluter could face a $500 fine and stop work orders, as two contractors were recently, for dumping pollutants into Stoney Creek.

Helmus said a solar-powered Flowlink has also been placed at Stoney Creek, at a cost of $35,000 in annual funding, to measure temperature, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and water level. water, with data being passed to Burnaby and Coquitlam Environmental and Public Works staff.

Stoney Creek, which has recently had issues with construction waste and sewage overflowing from manhole covers during heavy rains, will also benefit from real-time water quality measurement, Helmus said.

When there is a spike in any of the metrics, the city will respond, he said.

“I think it’s a way of showing that the city is proactive,” Helmus said.

The Guardians of Hoy Scott welcome this initiative as a means of educating the public on the importance of not dumping materials into storm sewers.

Vice President Tyler Storgaard told the News from the three cities a year of water quality testing by volunteers has determined a baseline, which can be used to measure dramatic changes with Flowlink data, such as the impact of winter street salting or cleaning solvents used by owners in spring and summer.

“The best thing that will come out of Flowlink is real-time data, if all of a sudden there was 90% dissolved oxygen, when it should be 40%, that would mean there is a pollutant , paints or solvents that would give us an alert.”

Investigators would follow the flow to a storm drain and then identify the culprit, he said.

“You can start looking in the streets for the probable cause of events,” Storgaard noted.

“It’s not because we want to see people penalized; we want to see education and enforcement that creates awareness in the public.”

Storgaard would like the city to be more proactive in reporting what happens with a spill, where it was tracked and the consequences, so people know what happens when they get too careless with their paint, car oil or their cleaning products.

Meanwhile, some custodians would like Flowlink to be used for other purposes, such as making sure contractors don’t dump concrete or other materials down storm drains, like what happened near Stoney Creek.

Kevin Ryan of the Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society says water quality testing should be a requirement for construction projects.

“The next important step is to get this technology on construction sites to completely prevent these occurrences,” Ryan said.

For now though, these water quality testing units will at least be keeping tabs on water quality in at least two streams in Coquitlam, with the goal of tracking pollution in real time to prevent another toxic source.