Project Description

Dry Creek Water Management Plan Options Analysis

As part of their permit to expand their coal mine at Line Creek into the neighbouring Dry Creek watershed, Teck Coal Ltd. is responsible for working with the Province and the Ktunaxa Nation Council to develop long-term limits for water quality constituents of concern and for instream flows, and also to develop a water management plan to meet those limits. The management plan will need to balance impacts to aquatic health and aquatic habitat of Westslope Cutthroat Trout (a Species at Risk), and ultimately to choose a management approach.

Compass provides neutral facilitation of the Working Group process using a structured decision making approach. This involves helping the multi-party Working Group to develop clear and meaningful measures to quantify key values, structure the required effects analyses, guide the development of alternative strategies, and articulate acceptable water quality limits and instream flows through an open exploration of trade-offs. As in many highly technical processes, uncertainty is a key consideration in choosing a management approach. In this process, Compass has also engaged in formal expert elicitation of the effectiveness of a variety of novel passive treatment technologies, as well as played an important role in characterizing the overall uncertainty in treatment effectiveness.

Related Projects: Environmental Assessment, Expert Judgement, Risk,Species at Risk, Structured Decision Making, Technical Working Groups, Trade-off Analysis, Water

Project Details

• ClientTeck Coal Ltd.