Plan to divert Maple Creek worries Port Coquitlam environmentalists

A group of environmentalists say a proposed housing development in Port Coquitlam threatens the long-term salmon-bearing potential of Maple Creek.

The Maple Creek Streamkeepers are concerned about a plan to divert part of Maple Creek five metres to make way for a 10,000-square-foot house at 2545 Kitchener Ave.

The diversion has been approved by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (which is still also known as DFO), pending remediation work by the homeowners.

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"We were all flabbergasted, because there are hundreds and thousands of hours that Streamkeepers put into looking after that stream," Maple Creek Streamkeepers President Sandy Budd told On The Coast guest host Gloria Macarenko.

"Numerous studies show moving a stream does not result in the same habitat productivityA lot of time when you do move the streambed, you lose the stream."

Councillor: Maple Creek a 'crown jewel'

While the proposal has been approved by the DFO after consultation with the local Kwikwetlem First Nation, the DFO says it still has to get the okay from Port Coquitlam City Council.

Coun. Brad West is chair of the city's Smart Growth Committee. He says he hasn't looked at the application in detail, but adds it would take "a lot" to convince him the proposal should be approved.

"Maple Creek is one of the crown jewels of Port Coquitlam and it's a really important watercourse in our community," he said.

"My interest is first and foremost in the preservation and enhancement of Maple Creek and just on the face of it, it's difficult to see how an alteration of this significance will contribute to its enhancement."

West says in his eight years on council he can't recall anyone applying to alter a waterway as significant as Maple Creek.

He says city staff are looking into the application for the creek's diversion and council will likely come to a decision in the fall.

On The Coast contacted the applicants behind the development but they declined to comment on the record.

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast