From the
earliest days of its oldest predecessor, the St. Clair River Research
Committee, the SLEA has monitored the quality of Sarnia-Lambton’s
largest watercourse.
At the
beginning of the monitoring program, in the early 1950s, the industrial
co-operative applied its scientific approach to establish a long-term,
water quality measuring stick. Member companies could use the annual
results as a further means of assessing the effectiveness of their plant
improvements. It was reasoned that, over time, continuous reductions in
plant discharges to the river would be tracked through improvements to
the quality of the St. Clair River.
Water Quality: Chemical Testing: River Monitoring
This monitor, fully automated, is located at Courtright. Established in 1987, it analyzes samples of river water on an hourly basis. Twenty chemical compounds are tracked; these are associated with the refining of petroleum and the manufacture of chemicals.
In 2008,
more than 8,700 samples from the St. Clair River were collected and
analyzed, under the SLEA’s continuous water quality monitoring program.
As shown in Table 1, only five of the 20 targeted compounds were
detected over the course of the year. From a total of 174,240 separate
findings, only 1,641 results – less than one percent – were greater
than, or equal to the minimum detection limit** established for
instrument testing precision. For the third year in a row, and the
fourth time in six years, all analyses were below one part per billion.
Biomonitoring Studies - Some Examples
No significant differences have been observed when the test populations both upstream and down have been compared. Good water quality occurs both upstream and downstream from Sarnia Lambton industries and municipalities.
