5.4 Vegetation 65
5.4.3 Ancillary Facility Site Conditions 76
Most of ancillary facilities associated with the wastewater treatment facilities follow existing road systems and construction would require little or no disturbance of natural areas. The settings of the conveyance facilities are discussed in the following sections.
5.4.3.1 Macaulay Point to McLoughlin Point
The pipe connection between the Macaulay Point and McLoughlin Point sites and the underground utilities will be installed beneath existing paved roads and will not affect any sensitive ecosystems.
Exiting the Macaulay site, the pipe route crosses a gravel parking area at the corner of Vaughan Street and View Point Street. Agronomic grasses, invasive plants and some native vegetation, including great camas, harvest brodiaea and a lance-leaved stonecrop (Sedum lanceolatum) plant established in the gravel parking area to the south east of the site. From the Victoria View Road - Bewdley Avenue junction the pipe route enters a residential area with urban landscaping. A small rock outcrop is located on the west side of Bewdley Avenue. The outcrop is a children’s play area and few native plants remain.
The Macaulay Point pump station and conveyance pipe route to McLoughlin Point is disturbed and rare vegetation is unlikely to occur in the area affected by the project. There are no records of plant species or plant communities at risk adjacent to proposed route.
5.4.3.2 Clover Point
The conveyance pipes between Currie Road pump station and Clover Point will be installed in a trench along existing roadways. Hence, effects to sensitive ecosystems or vegetation are not anticipated.
The proposed forcemain connecting Clover Point and McLoughlin Point facilities will be installed beneath Dallas Road, along the edge of the boulevard, or on the alignment of a proposed bicycle path. The portion of this forcemain crossing beneath the entrance to Victoria Harbour will disturb no vegetation.
Dallas Road crosses the following sensitive ecosystem types.
• Coastal bluff ecosystems, which occur in the ocean spray splash zone, and consist of rocky shorelines, islets or cliffs dominated by moss and grasses.
• Terrestrial herbaceous ecosystems, which are natural grasslands, rock out-crops and bryophyte dominated vegetation.
• Mixed broadleaf forest, which is dominated by trees greater than 100 years old and have a broadleaf component greater than 15%.
Areas adjacent to the conveyance pipe route between Clover Point and Ogden Point include disturbed meadows, urban landscaping, young forest and coastal bluffs (Figure 24). Historically, Garry oak meadows dominated the Dallas Road area. All meadow, young forest and coastal bluff habitats have been altered and continue to be disturbed by heavy use by pedestrians, joggers, dogs and other recreationists. Meadows adjacent to the conveyance pipe route are mowed regularly, though areas with showy displays of flowering native herbs are not mowed until summer, after the vegetation has flowered and set seed. Some Garry oak associated rare and regionally important plant species are still present, such as harvest brodiaea (Brodiaea elegans), spring gold (Lomatium utriculatum) and great camas are found adjacent to the road.
Unofficial trails adjacent to the conveyance pipe route support invasive species, including carpet burweed, common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), poison hemlock, English ivy and Himalayan blackberry. Poison hemlock and the native cow parsnip (Heracleum maximum) are a human health concern and are scattered along the roadside trails adjacent to the south end of the conveyance pipe route. Native species, such as California brome (Bromus carinatus), coastal gumweed, thrift, great camas, spring gold and harvest brodiaea can also be found adjacent to the route.
" ) " ) " ) " ) " ) " ) " ) Disturbed Forest Disturbed Forest
Clover Point Pump Station Meadow Habitat with Mixed Vegetation
Meadow Habitat with Mixed Vegetation Meadow with Rare Garry Oak Associated Plant Species
Meadow with Rare Garry Oak Associated Plant Species
_C RD _S ep t2 01 3_ Fig ur e2 4_ Cl ov er _t o_ Og de n. m xd VEGETATION FEATURES BETWEEN CLOVER POINT AND OGDEN POINT 10215
Although there is no reason to believe that there are any errors associated with the data used to generate this product or in the product itself, users of these data
are advised that errors in the data may be present.
(All Locations Approximate)
0 100 200 300 400 metres
Mapped By: JRO Checked By: JC
SEPTEMBER 2013
Projection: UTM Zone 10 North. Datum: NAD 1983. Proposed Conveyance Pipe Route: Stantec 2013;
Parks: CRD July 2009; Imagery: CRD 2011. SCALE: 1:13,500
¯
Victoria " ) Observation FIGURE 24 Ogden Point Clover Point Beacon Hill ParkDallas Road Park
Proposed Conveyance Pipe Route
Dallas Road is lined by mature street trees near Ogden Point. The drip line of these trees is over the road, indicating that their roots may be disturbed during construction. Disturbance of roots has the potential to affect the survival of the trees.
Mature trees along the section of Dallas Road near Ogden Point are of environmental and visual importance to the community and the City of Victoria (Darrah pers. comm.). Because the trees along this segment of Dallas Road are on City of Victoria property, they are not protected under the Tree Preservation Bylaw, which applies only to trees on private property (Darrah pers. comm.). However, under Section 4(2) of the Tree Preservation Bylaw, public works carried out under the authority of the City of Victoria must be reviewed and approved by the Director before being carried out.
5.4.3.3 Arbutus Road
The proposed new conveyance pipes at Arbutus Road are to be installed parallel to existing sewer infrastructure. These sewer rights-of-ways are already disturbed and tend to have become part of the existing path structure. The pathways tend to be mostly bare soil bordered on both sides by invasive plant species, shrubs and mature trees (TERA 2013).
5.4.3.4 Craigflower site
Terrestrial Route
The terrestrial portion of the new sewage conveyance pipeline on the east bank of Portage Inlet will be buried under an existing grass sports field (Figure 23). This site is highly disturbed for most of its length and is planted with non-native, cultivated grass species.
The shoreline includes common native estuary plants such as Lyngby’s sedge (Carex lyngbyei) and tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia cespitosa). Bank vegetation includes Douglas-fir, Arbutus, Garry oak and red alder with an understory of Indian plum, common snowberry, seeded agronomic grasses and invasive plants, including Scotch broom, English Ivy and Himalayan blackberry. There is a remnant vernal pool near the east end of the proposed pipe route. The remnant pool is in the school field and has been seeded with agronomic grasses.
On the west bank of the inlet, the proposed conveyance pipeline will be buried on a site made up of unknown fill, disturbed by past construction and revegetated with both native and non-native plant species. Plant communities on the site are dominated by Himalayan Blackberry, Scotch Broom, grasses, yarrow and rose. Tree species include mature native willow, Douglas fir and bigleaf maple. No rare plant communities have been identified on-site or along the conveyance pipe route.
Portage Inlet Crossing
This marine habitat is shallow and typically less than 2 m deep at high tide. Portage inlet is important habitat for eelgrass beds and represents a large proportion of the total number of these beds in CRD harbours. However, the nearest recorded location of eelgrass beds in Portage Inlet is approximately 280 m to the northeast, across the Craigowan Rd. Peninsula (CRD 2013a).
The View Royal OCP has identified the stand of trees just south of the Project site, at the head of the tidal flats as ecologically important (CRD 2012). Douglas-fir, and Big-leaf maple and native species of shrubbery dominate the mature stand.
Tidal meadow and tidal marsh ecosystems are located at the base of the riparian shoreline. On the west side of Portage Inlet, there is a tidal meadow that consists predominantly of Quack grass (Elymus repens) with lesser amounts of entire-leaved gumweed (Grindelia integrifolia), bentgrass (Agostis sp.) and Orachre (Atriplex patula). On the east side of the estuary there is a tidal marsh that consists predominately of Lyngby’s sedge with lesser occurrences of bentgrass and seaside arrow grass (Triglochin maritima) (CRD 2012).
The new sections of sewage conveyance pipeline will be bored beneath the Portage Inlet tidal flat using a trenchless method (pipe jacking). This method was chosen to avoid disturbance to Portage Inlet. No vegetation or ecological communities at-risk are known or expected to occur in or adjacent to the ancillary route (TERA 2013).