About this Database
Watershed
The Shuswap River arises in the Columbia Icefield of the Rocky Mountains and empties into the Thompson River, which flows into the Fraser and thence to the Pacific Ocean. Its length between its source and the Thompson, can be imagined conveniently in three sections.
The Upper Shuswap, stretching from the river's source to Sugar Lake, flows through mountainous territory, with no mines or industrial activities other than excessive logging.
The Lower Shuswap stretches from Mabel Lake to Shuswap Lake whose outflow continues as the Thompson River. This section flows through wide bottom land with an enormous agricultural presence along its banks and considerable logging in the surrounding hills.
The water bodies whose parameters are posted in this web site all lie in what is known as the Middle Shuswap River, which flows for about 50 km through the Interior Plateau of British Columbia between Sugar and Mabel Lakes.
Pacific salmon spawn in the Shuswap River and its tributaries as far as Shuswap Falls, about 20 km upstream of Mabel Lake, where they are blocked by WIlsey Dam. Less than a km below the dam is the mouth of Bessette Creek where they can continue more than 15 km, through the village of Lumby and into various tributaries of that creek.
Water Stewards
Volunteers in Cherryville and rural Lumby have been sampling the Middle Shuswap River and its tributaries since about 2010 (depending on which group), and sending the samples for analysis at the CARO Analytic Services laboratory in Kelowna.
The Lumby Group (MSL) is reported as part of the Mabel Lake Community Club & Recreation Commission, a registered Society. A group sampling in the upper half of Middle Shuswap is known as the Cherryville Water Stewards, reported under the Cherry Ridge Management Society (CRM). The lab analyses and use of vehicle expenses for these two groups have been funded by the RDNO. Another sampler is Claude Labine who funds his own testing and is known here as Campbell Scientific Corporation (CSC).
CARO is able to test for a vast number of compounds in water, and the number of parameters requested of them has had to be limited because of budget constraints. The analytes reported herein are primarily for agricultural and recreational effects, rather than industrial or municipal, although many of the compounds tested for can be the result of several or all of these.