Medicine River: Ecoli & Fecal Matter Off The Charts!

The Issue:

The Medicine River is a tributary of the Red Deer River, located downstream of the Dickson Dam along highway 54 in Central Alberta.

A water quality test commissioned by the province revealed serious concerns involving the water quality downstream of Spruceview and upstream of Innisfail and Red Deer. Runoff from livestock feed lots and farms has pushed the fecal matter levels in the waterway to dangerously high levels. Ecoli, Phosphorus and Nitrogen from agricultural practices on the surrounding area are also appallingly high.

Biodiversity At Serious Risk

The biodiversity of the waterway has been severely affected, with several insect hatches (crucial to river ecosystems) substantially dropping off or disappearing entirely. This in turn degrades the fishing experience on the river making it much more difficult for anglers to match the insect activity at the stream surface and in the film.

It is disgraceful that the powers that be would allow water quality to deteriorate so completely over time to the detriment of recreation, wildlife & safety.

Hard Data; Frightening Conclusions

In the charts provided below one see that in many cases water pollutant levels greatly exceed the allowable benchmarks set by the AENV and CCME. One can also see how drastically levels of pollutants have risen over time:

For full data, please refer to Medicine River: Complete Dataset (Excel Document)