(Photo courtesy of Mill Bay and District Conservation Society)
Remediation efforts underway after water-main break at development site releases sediments into Shawnigan Creek
Mill Bay conservation group has reported coho salmon deaths downstream at fish trap
The BC government says “cleanup and remediation activities are underway” after a water-main break resulted in the release of sediments into Shawnigan Creek, killing coho salmon at a fish trap downstream.
David Karn, spokesman for the BC Ministry of Environment and Parks, said Friday that the Environmental Emergency Branch is aware of the incident and is coordinating with the responsible party and relevant agencies.
He said the developer — “Limona Construction Ltd. / Stonebridge Development” — reported that a water-main strike on October 2 “overwhelmed on-site sediment controls,” resulting in sediments entering Shawnigan Creek.
“The developer has retained an environmental consultant, and the cleanup and remediation activities are underway.”
Karn added: “Any determination regarding fish mortality, regulatory non-compliance or enforcement actions will be made by the appropriate regulatory and enforcement agencies following their review of the incident.”
Wayne Hopkins, managing partner for the project, told Six Mountains that crews working on Barry Road, which is newly under construction, came into contact with an unknown six-inch water main under pressure.
"It wasn't on any maps or drawings. Nobody knew it was there."
(Barry Road development site)
Hopkins said "an incredible amount of water" spilled out for 20 to 30 minutes until the pipe could be turned off, during which time the water created a "landslide" of sand, gravel, clay.
"The slurry of material came down at a very high speed" he said.
Sediment and erosion mitigation measures in place slowed but did not fully stop the debris from finding its way to Shawnigan Creek, he said.
"Thankfully those measures were there....They stopped an immense amount of material from getting into the riparian areas," he said.
"It's an incredibly unfortunate situation."
Ken Gray, secretary and director with the Mill Bay and District Conservation Society, said Friday that 2,000 to 3,000 coho are expected to return to the creek this season.
So far, 746 salmon have been moved from the fish trap at the mouth of the creek, up a railway car to live tanks on trailers to be released at various points upstream of impassible waterfalls.
"Yes, there was an initial fish kill," Gray said. "We don't know the end result.
"With fish put in that atmosphere where there is major turbidity, there is a very good chance there is kill damage. Mortality can take place two to three weeks after being exposed to this."
He added: "Any dead ones...the bears, the otters, the raccoons, the minks, are feasting on them pretty quickly. We'll never know the final tally of the mortality."
Gray said: "We want environmental standards in place so this never happens again on this creek."
The society posted a Facebook statement on October 6 describing the "catastrophic release of sediment” following a ruptured underground water line at a construction development site upstream of the society’s fish trap.
“By the time the water was shut off and repairs completed, the released water had washed the equivalent of approximately 50 dump truck loads of soil and silt into the Creek,” said the statement.
The weir at Shawnigan Lake was lowered to allow more water to enter the creek in an effort to help flush out the sediments, the society said, but 30 salmon died in the fish trap.
“As you may imagine Saturday was a difficult and sad day for our volunteers. To put this into perspective, we lost more fish in a single day than we have in the past 20 years of our operations.”
(The mouth of Shawnigan Creek)
Read more about the society’s work with coho on Shawnigan Creek: https://mbdcs.ca/our-coho-salmon-project
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— Larry Pynn, Oct. 9, 2026
