False Creek
Water Quality Assessment

Metro Vancouver, the City of Vancouver, False Creek Friends Society, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation are collaborating on a project to better understand water quality conditions in False Creek.

This project will improve understanding of current conditions in False Creek, evaluate the influence of sewers and stormwater systems on False Creek water quality, and guide collective efforts for improvements — by assessing water samples collected from various marine locations in False Creek and combined sewer and stormwater outfalls discharging into False Creek, at different times of the year.

Background:

• Metro Vancouver and the City of Vancouver work together to deliver sewerage and drainage services to Vancouver residents and businesses, as well as to the residents of the Musqueam 2 and Sen̓áḵw

• The City of Vancouver manages the local collection systems, while Metro Vancouver manages the larger regional sewers that move wastewater to the Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant and other treatment plants in the region.

• The region’s first sewers were built as combined sewers. Combined sewers carry both sewage and stormwater in a single pipe.

• Combined sewers do not have sufficient capacity for the large amount of rainwater that enters the system during extreme wet weather and are designed to overflow, at combined sewer outfalls, to avoid backups into homes and businesses.

• Metro Vancouver owns and operates one combined sewer outfall in False Creek. The City of Vancouver owns and operates multiple combined sewer and stormwater outfalls in False Creek.

• Annual combined sewer overflow volumes vary at each outfall, depending on the amount of rainfall, sewer separation progress, and the number of properties serviced by each outfall.

• During this project, ocean water samples will be collected from a boat in False Creek. Teams will also collect samples representing quality of wastewater in municipal and regional collection systems. These samples will be collected at outfalls and maintenance holes within the combined sewer and stormwater systems.

• Samples will be collected in summer and winter to evaluate potential seasonal variations. Once the samples have been analyzed, and assessments completed, the results can be used to help evaluate water quality and influencing factors, and to inform future work to improve environmental conditions in False Creek.

• Once the project is complete, the results will be shared publicly. Sampling started in 2025, and we anticipate the project will last up to two years.