What baseline studies have been conducted in the Crowsnest coalfield area to date?
A three-year baseline data set was collected from April 2004 to April 2007 for baseline surface water quality sampling of seven streams draining from the Crowsnest coalfield. In 2004 and again in 2007, MOE and MEMPR undertook a baseline benthic invertebrate survey. Benthic invertebrates are organisms that live on the bottom of a water body or in the sediment; they are useful to monitor as they are relatively stationary and easy to sample, identify and count. Changes in abundance, diversity, biomass and species composition, if any, are indicators of changing environmental conditions. Sampling was conducted on seven streams draining from the Crowsnest coalfield at the same locations as surface water quality sites. A literature and data review of fish and fish habitat in the vicinity of the Crowsnest coalfield and associated watershed was conducted in 2005. Contact was made with numerous individuals, First Nations, companies and agencies to locate and catalogue fish and fish habitat surve
