Intensive monitoring of Porter Creek is needed, says a retired science teacher who has had extensive involvement with the watershed.

It's not enough to guess how much phosphorous should be allowed into the system from the Icy Waters fish farm on Fish Lake Road, Bob Sharp told the Yukon Territory Water Board recently.

It's essential for the health of the system that regulatory authorities do the definitive research to learn more about the creek and exactly what impact the Arctic char farm is having on it, he suggested to the board again in a separate interview last week.

Sharp was appearing before the board on behalf of students from the experiential science 11 course, who have been researching the system over the last 10 years.

Icy Waters is seeking amendments to its water licence, including a three-fold increase in the amount of phosphorous nutrients it can let escape into the McIntyre and Porter creeks.

Both the Yukon and federal governments, however, are asking the board to keep the allowance for phosphorous at the same level as outlined in the existing licence, until more is known about the systems.

Sharp said a lot more needs to be known.

'You have not got the threshold right now,' Sharp said. 'If you had the threshold right, then your management of the water system would not show the algae blooms they are showing.'

The head waters of Porter Creek are located along the Fish Lake Road, and flow through the fish farm before being returned to its natural water course. It flows naturally northeast below the Whitehorse landfill, across the Alaska Highway, beside the Super A and down into Versluce Meadows, the large field area behind the grocery store where soil stripping has occurred for the last two decades.

Icy Waters has failed continuously to meet the phosphorous limit over the last 10 years, according to officials with the Department of Environment who appeared before the board during three days of hearings which ended 10 days ago.

There is no evidence to suggest, however, that even if the fish farm was meeting the licensed phosphorous levels, that there wouldn't be a problem, Sharp believes.

Nobody, he maintains, knows what is appropriate because nobody's done the research.

He insists information needs to be gathered to establish a base line showing what is natural, what is not and how much influence of unnatural phosphorous or additional nutrients the two distinct watersheds can take.

There has been a dramatic change in the amount of algae found in the Porter Creek system from the days when Sharp began using Hidden Lake in 1989 to teach students the craft of canoeing.

Located off Holly Street behind Porter Creek Secondary School, Hidden Lake was ideal. As the drainage basin for Porter Creek, its surface water was clear, and the lake had an interesting shape, said the Science 11 submission to the water board.

In 1994, however, instructors and students began noticing the water was changing, that it was not as clear as it once was.

The next year, they began to notice algae growing in the lake, and every year after, more and more algae.

In 1998, students began mapping the size of the algae bloom, explains the submission to the water board.

By 1999, it became difficult to fish from the edge of the lake because of the amount of algae lining the shore.

By 2001, the last year mapping occurred, more than half the lake was covered by blooms of algae.

'We again surveyed (2001) some of the ponds and in the upper reaches of Porter Creek and found that some were almost completely covered by mats of algae,' reads the Science 11 submission.

'The algae growth is the result of added nutrients in the Porter Creek system,' said the conclusion. 'The fact that it is found in the upper reaches indicates the source is IWL (Icy Waters Ltd.).'

Not only is there a problem with increased algae, however, but students have also noticed Arctic char among the fish populations in Hidden Lake, amounting to evidence Arctic char have escaped into the system, Sharp said.

Furthermore, he added, there is a case to argue that the creek should be returned to its natural course through the middle of Versluce Meadows.

In researching the history of Porter Creek, students located documents that showed a farmer was allowed in 1905 to alter the course of the creek from the middle of the meadow to around the perimeter, so that he could maximize the yield of hay.

Cee & Cee Dirt and Gravel Ltd. entered into a 20-year arrangement in 1985 to strip soil from the low lands owned by Yukon government. The agreement expires next year.

Sharp said it's his belief, as it is the belief of the Porter Creek Community Association, that the creek should be returned to its natural course once the stripping lease expires.

As it is, he explained, excavation of the meadow has lowered it in places to two and three metres below the elevation of the creek. He said any disruption of the creek in winter, such as a snow machine roaring down it or across it can cause overflow and water to be redirected onto the flats of the meadow.

Students, he said, drilled sample holes on the flats one winter and found significant layers of ice buildup.

One particular study, he told the water board hearing, showed water flowing into Versluce Meadows, but nothing flowing out in the direction of Hidden Lake.

In eight of the 10 years leading up to and including 2003, Hidden Lake has dried up and frozen for lack of water flow, Sharp maintains.

He said Hidden Lake is like a giant coffee filter with water dripping down through the lake bottom into the ground water table, and unless there is a steady flow into the lake to replenish water that drips out the bottom, it will eventually dry up.

In 1993, he recalls, students drilled several holes in the ice on Hidden Lake to take water samples. Nothing was out of the ordinary. When they returned a week later, the ice had fallen and the lake was all but dry.

Through a drill hole students could see approximately 140 dead fish, or near dead fish, along a strip measuring 30 centimetres wide by four metres long.

They were rainbow trout, mostly, though there was some sculpin and three or four Arctic char, Sharp says.

From the hole in the ice, however, they could see another area, about the size of a footprint for a standard house. He estimates there could have been a thousand dead fish or more.

Work by Department of Environment staff indicates the lake did not freeze this past winter, as nets were set in March and fish were caught.

Nor did the lake freeze last year.

Sharp believes the flow of water in the winter could be stabilized if Porter Creek was returned to its natural course through the meadow.

And the perfect opportunity is approaching next year when Cee & Cee's agreement to strip top soil expires, he suggests.

Sharp notes there is already a move afoot with the Porter Creek Community Association to return the creek to its original course and secure the meadow as a natural park.

Association president Carole Bookless explained this week that Archie Lang, the MLA for Porter Creek North and a minister in the Yukon Party government, told the association last fall his government wants to turn the land over to the city once the stripping lease expires. He said the Yukon government would also like the association to move the city into a park planning process for the area, Bookless said.

She noted the minister told the association last fall that the government already has allocated $30,000 for the planning process.

'The main consensus is we would like to see it go back to nature, and we would like to see it (the creek) returned to its original course,' said the association president.

Bookless pointed out, however, that she would like to hear more from residents of Porter Creek regarding the Versluce Meadows matter, and pointed out the association is having its annual general meeting this Monday.

Lyle Henderson, manager of the Yukon government's land branch, said there is no indication Cee & Cee will be looking for any extension to the stripping agreement, as the top soil resource is nearing its depletion.

According to the 1985 agreement, Henderson pointed out, Cee & Cee was allowed to strip down to the point where there was a least 15 centimetres of top soil left.

The company is also obligated to seed and contour the meadow to allow for drainage of surface water when it's finished in the meadow, he pointed out.

The water board has adjourned its hearing into the application from Icy Waters.

Board chair Shannon Cooper said this week she was not able to comment on the application because it is still in the process, nor was she able to suggest when the board will make a decision on the fish farm's application.