LITTLE CAMPBELL CREEK - PROBLEM
Little Campbell Creek as the "Canary in the Coal Mine"
Over the past few years biologists and other researchers have encountered noticeable fish die-offs, mostly of young salmonid, in various stretches of Little Campbell Creek. The USFWS prepared a summary report of these events titled Frequency and Distribution of Fish Kills in Little Campbell Creek, July - September 2005. One of the most obvious reasons for the fish die-offs is degraded water quality including an increase in turbidity, and there are many reasons for this. Turbidity data was collected and reported in Turbidity Monitoring in Little Campbell Creek, Summer 2005. Some of the most obvious are inputs from the city’s storm water system, stream channelization and its effects, removal of wetland filtering areas, and the impacts of urbanization (building of roads, construction, vegetation removal, increases in impermeable surfaces and the associated run-off of chemicals from various sources, and channeled run-off of storm water into the creek). Another USFWS report, Restoring ecological function and value to aquatic resources in the Little Campbell Creek watershed: Recommendations for the Great Land Trust summarizes the problems and some potential solutions.
Anchorage, a northern city, uses its creeks for storm-water conveyance and general drainage from a variety of sources including car washing and lawn watering. With this type of system many chemical pollutants eventually find their way into our creeks. Exacerbating the problem is the increased volume of run-off from snow melt, high rain events, and other factors, which encourage erosion of stream banks and further contribute to high sediment and turbidity levels in local waterways. Even so, there is much work to be accomplished in order to ascribe these fish die-offs to one or two sources, and it is most likely that there are several contributing factors. Regardless, stream turbidity is not a healthy environment for rearing juvenile salmonids and other species. Because Little Campbell Creek is such a small creek, the impacts on it are most visible, and it is the concern of the Anchorage Waterways Council and others that it is the “Canary in the Coal Mine” or warning for the other creeks in our city.
Full copies of the following reports are available online:
Fish Kill Activity Summer 2005 (pdf)
Turbidity Activity Summer 2005 (pdf)
WAG Report Final (pdf)
Some of the dead juvenile salmon and other species picked up in Little Campbell Creek
What you can do:
1. Clean up after your pets -- Scoop the Poop!
2. Only clean water down storm drains!
3. Be a WATERWAYS WATCHER! Report your concerns to Anchorage Waterways Council (907) 272-7335 or use the following form.
Anchorage Waterways Council is trying to gather as much baseline information as possible on fish and water conditions in Little Campbell Creek (as well as other Anchorage creeks). Please contact us by using the interactive form below. ALL information is valuable and will give us a more complete picture of what is happening on Little Campbell Creek and other Anchorage creeks.
THANK YOU!