The source of grey water spotted in Bowker Creek last week remains a mystery. 

A photo of the contaminated stream posted to an Oak Bay Facebook group on Dec. 3 caused a stir, with many frustrated that the waterway, which the Friends of Bowker Creek Society has worked hard to protect, had been polluted. 

Eldan Goldenberg, a Friends of Bowker Creek Society volunteer, who leads the organizationB次元官网网址檚 water-quality team, has been working to solve the puzzle. 

Last week, Goldenberg, along with other Friends of Bowker Creek Society volunteers, checked the waterwayB次元官网网址檚 quality upstream of the Cadboro Bay Road and Foul Bay Road intersection. There, the water was clear, when downstream, it was murky. 

B次元官网网址淲hat that tells us is that itB次元官网网址檚 almost certainly entering the creek itself in the culvert under the Cadboro Bay/Foul Bay intersection,B次元官网网址� said Goldenberg, adding that, below the streets, storm drains from Oak Bay, Victoria and Saanich pour into the waterway.  

B次元官网网址淥ak Bay public works has investigated and can confirm it is not coming from any district infrastructure and is coming from outside of the district,B次元官网网址� said Hayley Goodgrove, Oak BayB次元官网网址檚 manager of communications, in a Dec. 6 email. 

Also in a Dec. 6 email, Victoria's manager of communications Colleen Mycroft said the city received two reports of murky water in Bowker B次元官网网址� one on Dec. 3 and another on Dec. 4 B次元官网网址� and responded to both. Mycroft didn't say whether Victoria thinks the spill originated within its borders.

Saanich said it received two reports on Dec. 3 from a taxpayer that two construction sites on Shelbourne Street had released silt into Bowker. 

According to a Dec. 6 email from Saanich's manager of communications Kelsie McLeod, near the intersection of Shelbourne Street and Mortimer Street, a contractorB次元官网网址檚 settlement tank was leaking into a catch basin, and near the intersection of Shelbourne Street and McRae Avenue, silty water was running into Bowker Creek from the same contractor.  

B次元官网网址淚t was a concerned resident just noticing that there was grey flow coming in,B次元官网网址� Aidan McCrea, a Saanich communications advisor, told the Oak Bay B次元官网网址 on Dec. 6. B次元官网网址淭hen Saanich crews went down, had a look at it and came to the conclusion that it was a settlement tank and notified [Emergency Management BC].B次元官网网址� 

McCrea said district engineering staff, who are heading up the Shelbourne project, were going over sediment management plans with crews onsite.

However, the contractor Saanich identified in its Dec. 6 email staunchly refutes the districtB次元官网网址檚 claims. 

B次元官网网址淪ilt is definitely not coming from our site,B次元官网网址� the company's general manager told the Oak Bay B次元官网网址 on Dec. 6. B次元官网网址淲e have an environmental management plan weB次元官网网址檙e following it and thereB次元官网网址檚 other work happening around the area, so we can say with absolute certainty itB次元官网网址檚 not coming from our site.B次元官网网址� 

Goldenberg isnB次元官网网址檛 sure SaanichB次元官网网址檚 explanation accounts for the murkiness people have reported seeing in the Oak Bay sections of Bowker Creek. 

B次元官网网址�It's also possible that these are separate from the spill that's been reported in Oak Bay,B次元官网网址� he said, adding that Friends of Bowker Creek Society volunteers have seen murky water near McRae Avenue, clear water downstream in the section of Bowker Creek between Hillside Mall and Cadboro Bay Road and murky water again downstream from the intersection of Cabroro Bay Road and Foul Bay Road.  

B次元官网网址淪ince this has been intermittent all along, it's possible that we've just been unlucky in our timing and missed the problem when it's been in the intermediate reaches,B次元官网网址� added Goldenberg. B次元官网网址淥r it could be that we have multiple separate spills, with Saanich having B次元官网网址� to their great credit B次元官网网址� taken care of the ones in their jurisdiction while there's an as yet unidentified source further downstream.B次元官网网址� 

Goldenberg said he canB次元官网网址檛 say for sure which explanation makes more sense, but he said he leans toward the latter scenario, due to the B次元官网网址渧ery intense milky colourationB次元官网网址� in two photos he received that were taken near Bee Street, which is just downstream of the Cadboro Bay Road and Foul Bay Road intersection.

B次元官网网址淎 lot of water enters the creek between McRae and there, including a whole fork that comes down from Cedar Hill and joins the main stream near Hillside Mall,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淪o we often find that turbidity which is quite bad around Browning Park isn't visible at all by Oak Bay because it's got so diluted, whereas the worst of this week's Oak Bay photos don't look watered down at all.B次元官网网址� 

No matter where the murkiness originates, foreign materials in Bowker could prove detrimental to the waterway.  

B次元官网网址淭he finer stuff smothers things that live in among the gravel, which includes a lot of the invertebrates that are at the bottom of the food chain and also salmon eggs themselves,B次元官网网址� said Goldenberg.  

This could impede the organization's years-long drive to repopulate Bowker with salmon.  

In 2021 and 2022, the group incubated chum salmon eggs from the Goldstream Fish Hatchery in the creek, in the hopes that full-grown fish will return to spawn there in 2025.  

B次元官网网址淔rom the point of view of the salmon restoration project, even the most natural sediment is bad when we get too much of it,B次元官网网址� he said.   

Goldenberg is asking the public to immediately report all instances of pollution in Bowker to public works departments in Victoria, Oak Bay and Saanich.