Series - Kaministiquia River Project

The Kaministiquia River designated as a high focused area to study due to the important link it has to water quality and fisheries. Kaministiquia River has had many spelling variants, including Kaministikwia. Kaministiquia, Ojibway name, means the meeting of rivers or a meandering river with three mouths (Kivi 1987) and was declared by Geography Board of Canada as the official spelling in 1982. The Kaministiquia or the “Kam” as it is known here locally orginates in the North at Dog Lake and, after a meandering course of 60 miles (95 km), it drains into Thunder Bay, of northwestern Lake Superior. It has many rapids and falls, notably the pictureseque Kakabeka Falls (154 feet [47 m] high), site of a major hydroelectric station. A private salmon fish hatchery was established 1986 upstream of Great Lakes Forest Products Ltd Pulp and Paper Mill at the base of the Ontario Power Generation Station outlet in Kakabeka Falls. The river divides into three channels as it enters Thunder Bay, providing deepwater shipping docks at the city of Thunder Bay.” In 1986, the Kaministiquia River received the highest discharge of industrial waste in the city of Thunder Bay. There is historical evidence of thousands of fish dying through the summer months due to oxygen depletion in the 48 kilometre stretch of the lower levels of the river.

Dr. Walter T. Momot of Lakehead University’s biology department accepted the task of investigating the Kaministiquia River Water quality barrier. The study focused on biophysical impacts on the aquatic species above and below the Great Lakes Pulp & Paper Mill of the Kaministiquia River. The preliminary investigations of the International Joint Fisheries Commission identified both physical and chemical impacts along the river. The physical components included the destruction of wetland areas or changes in the substrate composition, both of which were used formerly for spawning and nursery habitat by various aquatic species. Another important physical impact was water temperature fluctuations from effluent discharge and shipping ballast water at the Kaministiquia River delta. The Mission and McKellar rivers meet the Kaministiquia at this river delta. Chemical aspects of the study included the impacts of pollutants from both municipal and industrial sources and chemical lampricide use.

In addition to the biophysical impact study, the IJFC requested that the Ontario government look at impacts of over-exploitation, past and current commercial (lake whitefish and lake trout) and recreation fishery demands (walleye) and impacts of competition by invasive aquatic species. At this point of time, fifteen of the fifty-five species of fish in the Thunder Bay Area of Concern (AOC) were non-native species. This AOC had great potential for new exotic or invasive species. The first objective for this study was to obtain baseline knowledge of the fish community of the river. Stage 2 of the remedial process would assess the response of the fish community to rehabilitation efforts based on the pollution abatement measures of the Remedial Action Plan (RAP) applied to the lower reaches of the Kaministiquia River.

Dr. W. T. Momot worked cooperatively with Lake Superior Fisheries Management Unit (LSMU) of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) and Ontario Ministry of the Environment (OMOE).

The results of this study can be found in the final report named “Fish Community and Aquatic Habitat of the Kaministiquia River.” The study documents the collection of 11, 663 fish that represented a total of 40 of the 44 species known to occur in the Kaministiquia River study area. The study area was divided into distinct reaches of the river name after a geographic landmark. These were named old fort reach (deep and long meandering section with a 3km oxbow, 141.5 ha), great lakes reach (7 km, 126.6 ha), mouth reach (2 km, 36.4 ha), Stanley reach (6 km, 76 ha), Rossyln reach (6km, 55.6 ha), Breukelman Reach (5km, 79.5 ha), Harstone reach (6km, 69.8 ha)and the Kakabeka reach (4km, 45 ha).