The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority, the University of Guelph, and the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture have been working together to conduct water and climate research in the Parkhill Creek.
Ausable Bayfield Water Resources Coordinator, Davin Heinbuck, says researchers at the University of Guelph have already done a lot of research into sediment movement and how that impacts the movement of nitrates and phosphates during run-off events.
“What we’re learning from that is the interaction of the ground water and the surface water in those events. And one of the things that we’ve found is there really is no major connection between the ground water and the surface water. Parkhill Creek’s kind of unique in the sense that most of the water you see in the stream, it’s not coming from ground water sources, it’s coming from overland flow,” said Heinbuck.
Heinbuck says where this really is a factor, short term and long term, is the impact it has on flooding, erosion, drought and water quality. “So by understanding how the water’s moving through the system, how the sediment moves and how the nutrients move, we can then better predict what the impacts are going to be,” he added.
Heinbuck says the increase in the intense rainfall events that we see now will mean more water running off into the streams and rivers. That will mean more flooding, which leads to more erosion that carries sediments, which impacts water quality, not just in the local watershed, but also downstream of the watershed.
We’re looking at a very small watershed in the ParkHill Creek area, but it’s just one of many small watersheds, of similar nature, that are contributing to water quality central issues in larger waters, such as Lake Huron,” he said.
ABCA Healthy Watersheds Manager, Mari Veliz, says the findings of this study are important for watershed managers across the Great Lakes basin because they now know more about the supply of water and nutrients from clay-based streams to Lake Huron.
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