10/14/2026
A Simms Creek cautionary tale? Undoubtedly this developer also met all the provincial regulations for building in a riparian area.
‘Catastrophic’ sediment dump threatens spawning salmon at Shawnigan Creek
Published 3:44 pm Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Today In BC
By Sarah Simpson
A catastrophic sediment dump into Shawnigan Creek on Friday, Oct. 2 has killed an unknown number of spawning fish that had been set to be moved from a fish trap the following day by members of the Mill Bay and District Conservation Society.
For decades, MBDCS volunteers have been trapping and then physically assisting a run of Coho salmon during their migration above a series of waterfalls on Shawnigan Creek where it enters the Salish Sea near Mill Bay.
The sediment release was due to a ruptured water pipe at a new development upstream.
Preliminary reports from the Society were published on Facebook and stated that “by the time the water was shut off and repairs completed, the released water had washed the equivalent of approximately 50 dump truck loads of soil and silt into the creek. This sediment-laden water ran into our fish trap, which was holding around 800 Coho in preparation for our first move of the year planned for Saturday morning.”
Ken Gray, Society spokesman, redirected questions to the Facebook post and declined to comment further on the incident, citing a pending investigation.
Both provincial and federal authorities have been notified of the spill.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment and Parks confirmed the province’s Environmental Emergency Branch is aware of the incident and has been coordinating with the responsible party and relevant agencies.
“The developer reported that a water-main strike on Oct. 2, 2026, overwhelmed on-site sediment controls, resulting in sediment entering Shawnigan Creek. The developer has retained an environmental consultant and the cleanup and remediation activities are underway. The Province continues to monitor the response and the remediation activities being undertaken by the responsible party,” according to the Ministry.
Following the incident, the weir at Shawnigan Lake was opened to allow more water to enter the creek in an effort to help flush out the sediment, but damage had already been done.
“The creek, which is usually gin clear this time of year, was chocolate milk,” said the MBDCS Facebook post. “Turbidity measurements of the water taken on Friday were over 700 per cent greater than what is considered lethal for salmon and aquatic life.”
Volunteers still proceeded with their Saturday fish move event.
“As the day progressed, unfortunately we discovered 30 mortalities in the fish trap,” said the post. “At our upstream release site, some of the fish appeared to have fared the poor conditions reasonably well, but we also spent a lot more time than normal attempting to resuscitate fish that were struggling, and we lost some more fish there.”
The social media post noted that moving day was a “difficult and sad” day for volunteers.
“To put this into perspective, we lost more fish in a single day than we have in the past 20 years of our operations.”
The true toll it took on the fish may never be known.
“Salmon can be prone to a delayed response from having their gills coated with sediment, and it will be impossible to confirm if our survivors will be able to complete their mission and spawn,” said the post. “However, we can tell you that as of [Oct. 6] it appears that many of the fish that were released into the Creek and survived have now started migrating upstream.”
The Ministry said any determination regarding fish mortality, regulatory non-compliance, or enforcement actions will be made by the appropriate regulatory and enforcement agencies following their review of the incident.
Another fish move was scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 11.
