Latest news with #RaincoastConservationFoundation
National Observer
3 days ago
- Health
- National Observer
Climate change is fuelling mega-floods, awakening toxic zombie chemicals
The moment Peter Ross saw floodwaters sweep across the Fraser Valley during BC's devastating 2021 floods, the ocean pollution expert and senior scientist at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation knew the water was becoming a toxic cesspool. "I was talking to people on scene, and it smelled like death, it smelled like manure, it smelled like sewage, it smelled like diesel," he recalled. Rivers, streams and drainage ditches criss-crossing the region were swelling, spilling over fields, factories, homes and highways. As the waters flowed, they were picking up hundreds of pollutants that are typically stuck on dry land or in the soil. When the floodwaters receded over the following weeks, Ross and his colleagues tested the waters for 379 chemicals, like cocaine and other pharmaceuticals, PFAS, hydrocarbons, pesticides and heavy metals. Their results showed the water was packed with enough toxins to "prompt significant concern," he said. That nightmare scenario is poised to become more common — but worse — as the climate crisis worsens, a group of experts is warning. In a report published Thursday by the UN Environment Agency, a team of researchers warn that mega-floods, like the one that swept through BC in 2021, could contaminate huge areas of land with chemicals, including some banned decades ago because they're so toxic. "In recent decades, we've come quite a long way globally in terms of chemical regulation to make sure that the chemicals we're producing, and that we're releasing into the environment, are safe," said Markus Brinkmann, a report co-author and University of Saskatchewan toxicologist. There are hundreds of sites contaminated with banned chemicals like DDT or PFAS scattered around the globe. In many cases, the harmful chemicals don't threaten people or the environment because they're locked in the ground or in riverbed sediments. But when there's a flood, those chemicals get picked up and spread through floodwaters where they can harm human health, the environment, and come at a heavy cost to clean up. "It's definitely an issue of importance that we often like to forget about, because they're buried in our rivers and streams," he said. In a report published Thursday by the UN Environment Agency, a team of researchers warn that mega-floods could contaminate huge areas of land with chemicals, including some banned decades ago because they're so toxic. Climate change, which is largely driven by burning fossil fuels, will make intense rainfall more common, increasing the severity of flooding worldwide. Poor land- and water-management practices could exacerbate the problem, and without adaptive measures, flood damage could be about 20 times more severe, the report notes. Floods caused an average of $800 million annually in insured losses in Canada between 2019 and 2023. Insurers estimate that for every dollar of insured loss, people are shouldering about two dollars' worth of uninsured losses. The presence of toxic chemicals could make those impacts even more severe, the authors note. Take the US: In 2021, a House committee estimated that nearly 60 per cent of the country's non-federal superfund sites (heavily contaminated waste sites) are in areas vulnerable to floods and other natural disasters. In 2017, flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey carried over three tonnes of mercury from legacy industrial deposits into Galveston Bay, Texas, harming marine ecosystems. Tracking the places where toxic chemicals are buried in the soil or sediment before a flood, then trying to guide floodwaters to minimize their potential to contaminate the environment, can help reduce the risk. So can using bioremediation to get the chemicals out of the environment, or capping contaminated areas with concrete to reduce the risk of toxins getting into the water, said Brinkmann. Building more green infrastructure and better buffer zones between water and land that can absorb floodwaters could also help, said Ross, the ocean pollution expert. He was "really struck" how the lack of riparian buffers in the Fraser Valley — a problem caused in part because farms are exempted from riparian buffer laws — exacerbated the impact of the 2021 floods. "At the end of the day, all of this runoff from land and all of these pollutants from human activities end up in the water. They're going downstream. They're getting into food webs, and they're presenting a real risk," he said.
Global News
4 days ago
- Business
- Global News
Port of Vancouver seeks bidders for massive Roberts Bank terminal expansion
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority has started its search for a company to spearhead a massive expansion of the Roberts Bank port terminal. The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 (RBT2) project will add a new three-berth terminal to the existing port site in Delta, increasing the port's capacity by 50 per cent. It says the project, once complete, will free up more than $100 billion in new trade capacity and contribute $3 billion in annual GDP. The port authority said Wednesday that it has opened a request for qualifications for the team to handle construction planning and to build the landmass and wharf component of the expansion. 2:05 Delta port expansion faces legal challenges The successful candidate will be responsible for building a 100-hectare marine landmass, a 35-hectare widened causeway and a 1,300-metre wharf structure and expanded tug basin. Story continues below advertisement The port authority is aiming to shortlist three teams by the fall, who will then submit a detailed proposal. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The port expansion, which faced significant pushback from environmental groups and the City of Delta, was approved by the provincial and federal governments in 2023. Environmental groups still oppose the project, which they say will threaten salmon and the critically-endangered southern resident killer whale population, which is sensitive to ship noise. 'RBT2 is a real, real issue for Southern Resident Killer whales in terms of the increased shipping that will take place,' said Valeria Bergara, co-director of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation's Cetacean Conservation Research Program. 'Any industrial processes that put more noise into the water through increased shipping are going to affect the whales. Right now, we need a quiet space and quiet time for the whales, and it's super important. We're at 73 individuals.' The federal approval came with 370 legally-binding conditions aimed at mitigating safety and environmental concerns. Those include the installation of a safe fish passage infrastructure, developing habitat creation programs and creating a marine mammal detection response plan and noise restrictions. The port authority has signed mutual benefits agreements with 27 First Nations, and says it will continue with 'consultation and collaboration' with them, including Indigenous economic and procurement opportunities. Story continues below advertisement Construction on the project is slated to begin in 2028, and the terminal is scheduled to be in operation by the mid-2030s.
CBC
6 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
Orcas off B.C. coast face 'high probability of extinction' if conditions don't change: report
Social Sharing A new report from a group of more than 30 experts says a population of endangered killer whales off the coast of British Columbia and Washington state is showing no sign of recovery under current conditions. There is an "urgent need for more robust actions" to save the southern resident killer whales from extinction, says the report released by the David Suzuki Foundation and Raincoast Conservation Foundation on Monday. Despite measures adopted by Canada and the United States since 2019, the report says the whales face a "high probability of extinction" if conditions don't change. Lance Barrett-Lennard, cetacean scientist with the Raincoast foundation, says there is "no convincing reason" to believe the whales, which are genetically distinct from other orcas, will recover without stronger measures. A statement from the B.C.-based conservation groups says the report marks the first time scientists have proposed a road map for the recovery of southern resident killer whales on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. The report makes a series of 26 science-based recommendations, including limiting fisheries to help the whale access their main prey, chinook salmon, along with eliminating toxic chemicals that build up in their food chains and adopting enforceable underwater noise standards. "We specifically wanted to have a conversation that was science-focused, but we were mindful of keeping this as realistic as possible," Barrett-Lennard says. 'Iconic species' The scientific report is the result of a workshop held in Vancouver in March that brought together 31 experts from Canada, the United States and Europe to consider what it will take to save the animals, he says. The Fisheries Department has described the whales as a "critically endangered iconic species," of which 73 individuals remained at the last census. The federal government had determined the whales face "imminent threats" to their survival, but this spring it announced it would not issue an emergency protection order and instead adopt "incremental measures." Barrett-Lennard says Ottawa indicated at the time that it would "strengthen" recovery measures, but he hadn't seen any further details or a timeline. "It may take a long time, even decades, to observe the biological effects of these measures, as (the southern residents) are long-lived animals that reproduce slowly, and their recovery is expected to take time," the Fisheries Department said in its statement announcing Ottawa's decision in March. The decision also took into account "social, economic, policy and other factors, and the broader public interest," the statement said. Barrett-Lennard acknowledged it takes time to see signs of recovery in a population of long-lived animals with a slow reproductive rate. The existing measures since 2019 may have helped halt the whales' further decline, but scientists are "not seeing an upturn at this point," he says. The current population is "simply not a viable number for any species to be robust to catastrophic events like disease or an oil spill and to maintain genetic variation," the scientist adds. WATCH | Why this orca was 'moonwalking': Why an orca near West Vancouver was seen 'moonwalking' 1 month ago Duration 1:11 A video posted to social media has the public and some marine scientists intrigued. It shows a killer whale in Howe Sound swimming backwards. Marine mammal zoologist Anna Hall says the rare "moonwalking" behaviour has been seen in some transient killer whales. Here's what it was likely doing. The whales' main food source is chinook salmon, and the new report says limited access to prey remains the primary constraint on their recovery. Current government initiatives from both countries are "insufficient" to address the problem, the report says. Jeffery Young, a senior science and policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation, told CBC News that the challenge was whether the new federal government was distracted by other issues beyond the whales — some of which he says could harm orcas, like new pipelines or increased shipping. "It really comes down to the government accepting that this is a priority," he said. "We know it's an important one for Canadians and British Columbians in particular, and that we think there's actions that they can take to address it." Barrett-Lennard says the whales are particularly dependent on the largest, fattiest chinook, which spend the first year of their lives in freshwater streams. "Those are the fish that the killer whales take preferentially and to meet their nutritional requirements," he says. "They also tend to be the ones that fishermen love." The report recommends ensuring the orcas have "priority access" to early-season chinook in the Fraser River through fishing closures. It also calls on government to identify seasonal and annual prey thresholds for the whales and to close fisheries when their needs are not met. The recommendations also include expanding slowdown zones for ships and expanding the minimum distance vessels must keep away from the whales to 1,000 metres, as well as prohibiting various ships from discharging grey water, sewage and scrubber wastewater into the whales' habitat. Barrett-Lennard says the southern residents are an old, distinct population of orcas with great cultural significance for Indigenous Peoples in the area. Losing the whales would be a "tragedy," he says. "Once we identify members of the population as individuals, everything changes," he says. "We can begin to recognize individual traits and behaviours. Some of them are shy and some of them assertive." The whales have "huge brains," he adds. "We know that they keep track of social relationships through their whole lives. They have mental maps of the coast … They have family bonds." Authorities respond A spokesperson for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) said it acknowledged the recommendations in the report, many of which they said aligned with existing government recovery measures. "Canada's Oceans Protection Plan, an additional $61.5 million federal investment in 2019 and the renewed Whales Initiative in 2023, supports the recovery of endangered whales — including the southern resident killer whales — through protection measures, expanded research, ongoing monitoring, and actions to address key threats," they wrote. A Transport Canada spokesperson said that it's working with the marine industry to quiet vessels, by slowing them down and moving them away from areas frequented by southern resident killer whales. "As well, the [minister of transport] made a May 30, 2025 Interim Order, which establishes Vessel Restricted Zones, Speed Restricted Zones and requirements for vessels to stay back from killer whales," they wrote. The spokesperson added that Transport Canada was committed to reducing underwater noise in the long term, including by launching international initiatives to help benefit noise-sensitive marine species.
National Observer
6 days ago
- Politics
- National Observer
Scientists call for recovery for endangered orcas off British Columbia's coast
A new report from a group of more than 30 experts says a population of endangered killer whales off the coast of British Columbia and Washington state is showing no sign of recovery under the current conditions. There is an "urgent need for more robust actions" to save the southern resident killer whales from extinction, says the report released by the David Suzuki Foundation and Raincoast Conservation Foundation on Monday. Despite measures adopted by Canada and the United States since 2019, the report says the whales face a "high probability of extinction" if conditions don't change. Lance Barrett-Lennard, cetacean scientist with the Raincoast Foundation, says there is "no convincing reason" to believe the whales, which are genetically distinct from other orcas, will recover without stronger measures. A statement from the BC-based conservation groups says the report marks the first time scientists have proposed a road map for the recovery of southern resident killer whales on both sides of the Canada-US border. The report makes a series of 26 science-based recommendations, including limiting fisheries to help the whales access their main prey, chinook salmon, along with eliminating toxic chemicals that build up in their food chains and adopting enforceable underwater noise standards. "We specifically wanted to have a conversation that was science-focused, but we were mindful of keeping this as realistic as possible," Barrett-Lennard says. The scientific report is the result of a workshop held in Vancouver in March that brought together 31 experts from Canada, the United States and Europe to consider what it will take to save the animals, he says. The Fisheries Department has described the whales as a "critically endangered iconic species" of which 73 individuals remained at the last census. The federal government had determined the whales face "imminent threats" to their survival, but this spring it announced it would not issue an emergency protection order and instead adopt "incremental measures." Barrett-Lennard says Ottawa indicated at the time that it would "strengthen" recovery measures, but he hadn't seen any further details or a timeline. The Fisheries, Transport and Environment departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report and its recommendations. "It may take a long time, even decades, to observe the biological effects of these measures, as (the southern residents) are long-lived animals that reproduce slowly, and their recovery is expected to take time," the Fisheries Department said in its statement announcing Ottawa's decision in March. The decision also took into account "social, economic, policy and other factors, and the broader public interest," the statement said. Barrett-Lennard acknowledged it takes time to see signs of recovery in a population of long-lived animals with a slow reproductive rate. The existing measures from 2019 may have helped halt the whales' further decline, but scientists are "not seeing an upturn at this point," he says. The current population is "simply not a viable number for any species to be robust to catastrophic events like disease or an oil spill and to maintain genetic variation," he says. The whales' main food source is chinook salmon, and the new report says limited access to prey remains the primary constraint on their recovery. Current government initiatives from both countries are "insufficient" to address the problem, the report says. Barrett-Lennard says the whales are particularly dependent on the largest, fattiest chinook, which spend the first year of their lives in freshwater streams. "Those are the fish that the killer whales take preferentially and to meet their nutritional requirements," he says. "They also tend to be the ones that fishermen love." The report recommends ensuring the orcas have "priority access" to early-season chinook in the Fraser River through fishing closures. It also calls on government to identify seasonal and annual prey thresholds for the whales, and to close fisheries when their needs are not met. The recommendations also include expanding slowdown zones for ships and expanding the minimum distance vessels must keep away from the whales to 1,000 metres, as well as prohibiting various ships from discharging grey water, sewage and scrubber wastewater into the whales' habitat. Barrett-Lennard says the southern residents are an old, distinct population of orcas with great cultural significance for Indigenous Peoples in the area. Losing the whales would be a "tragedy," he says. "Once we identify members of the population as individuals, everything changes," he says. "We can begin to recognize individual traits and behaviours. Some of them are shy and some of them assertive." The whales have "huge brains," he adds. "We know that they keep track of social relationships throughout their whole lives. They have mental maps of the coast … They have family bonds."
Global News
7 days ago
- Science
- Global News
‘High probability of extinction': Urgent plea for aciton to save southern resident orcas
A new report from a group of more than 30 experts says a population of endangered killer whales off the coast of British Columbia and Washington state is showing no sign of recovery under the current conditions. There is an 'urgent need for more robust actions' to save the southern resident killer whales from extinction, says the report released by the David Suzuki Foundation and Raincoast Conservation Foundation on Monday. Despite measures adopted by Canada and the United States since 2019, the report says the whales face a 'high probability of extinction' if conditions don't change. 0:45 Endangered J-Pod welcomes new orca calf Lance Barrett-Lennard, cetacean scientist with the Raincoast foundation, says there is 'no convincing reason' to believe the whales, which are genetically distinct from other orcas, will recover without stronger measures. Story continues below advertisement A statement from the B.C.-based conservation groups says the report marks the first time scientists have proposed a road map for the recovery of southern resident killer whales on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. The report makes a series of 26 science-based recommendations, including limiting fisheries to help the whale access their main prey, chinook salmon, along with eliminating toxic chemicals that build up in their food chains and adopting enforceable underwater noise standards. 'We specifically wanted to have a conversation that was science-focused, but we were mindful of keeping this as realistic as possible,' Barrett-Lennard says. The scientific report is the result of a workshop held in Vancouver in March that brought together 31 experts from Canada, the United States and Europe to consider what it will take to save the animals, he says. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The Fisheries Department has described the whales as a 'critically endangered iconic species' of which 73 individuals remained at last census. The federal government had determined the whales face 'imminent threats' to their survival, but this spring it announced it would not issue an emergency protection order and instead adopt 'incremental measures.' Barrett-Lennard says Ottawa indicated at the time that it would 'strengthen' recovery measures, but he hadn't seen any further details or a timeline. Story continues below advertisement The Fisheries, Transport and Environment departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report and its recommendations. 3:31 Detecting early-stage pregnancy in threatened orcas 'It may take a long time, even decades, to observe the biological effects of these measures, as (the southern residents) are long-lived animals that reproduce slowly, and their recovery is expected to take time,' the Fisheries Department said in its statement announcing Ottawa's decision in March. The decision also took into account 'social, economic, policy and other factors, and the broader public interest,' the statement said. Barrett-Lennard acknowledged it takes time to see signs of recovery in a population of long-lived animals with a slow reproductive rate. The existing measures since 2019 may have helped halt the whales' further decline, but scientists are 'not seeing an upturn at this point,' he says. Story continues below advertisement The current population is 'simply not a viable number for any species to be robust to catastrophic events like disease or an oil spill and to maintain genetic variation,' he says. The whales' main food source is chinook salmon, and the new report says limited access to prey remains the primary constraint on their recovery. Current government initiatives from both countries are 'insufficient' to address the problem, the report says. 2:11 Responsible whale watching focus of new campaign Barrett-Lennard says the whales are particularly dependent on the largest, fattiest chinook, which spend the first year of their lives in freshwater streams. 'Those are the fish that the killer whales take preferentially and to meet their nutritional requirements,' he says. 'They also tend to be the ones that fishermen love.' Story continues below advertisement The report recommends ensuring the orcas have 'priority access' to early-season chinook in the Fraser River through fishing closures. It also calls on government to identify seasonal and annual prey thresholds for the whales, and to close fisheries when their needs are not met. The recommendations also include expanding slowdown zones for ships and expanding the minimum distance vessels must keep away from the whales to 1,000 metres, as well as prohibiting various ships from discharging grey water, sewage and scrubber wastewater into the whales' habitat. Barrett-Lennard says the southern residents are an old, distinct population of orcas with great cultural significance for Indigenous Peoples in the area. Losing the whales would be a 'tragedy,' he says. 'Once we identify members of the population as individuals, everything changes,' he says. 'We can begin to recognize individual traits and behaviours. Some of them are shy and some of them assertive.' The whales have 'huge brains,' he adds. 'We know that they keep track of social relationships through their whole lives. They have mental maps of the coast … They have family bonds.'
