Storm Water
Managing the Natural Resources | Chinook Nature Park | Memorial Forest | Garter Snake Preservation Zone | Beaver Management

Alterations to the Shaw's Meadow area of Fish Creek Provincial Park, required due to LRT expansion through the park, include a new system of handling storm water from neighbouring Calgary communities. In the past, large storm sewers emptied the water directly into Fish Creek. Now on the north side of Fish Creek, the storm water from the Canyon Meadows area flows into a wetlands area that has been created to hold this water. Settling and natural processes, such as filtering by aquatic plants, will remove contaminates. Overflow of the pond will filter through more vegetation before the water enters the creek as seeping ground water. On the south bank of Fish Creek, the storm water from communities around Shawnessy and Millrise goes through a series of 2 settling ponds, allowing natural processes to cleanse it. Eventually, the water moves into a wetlands infiltration area, entering the creek as ground water from that wetlands.

storm water pond from  Canyon Meadows area

south bank of Fish Creek,  settling Pond 2

wetlands infiltration area

An exciting new partnership with the Rotary Club of Calgary has enabled the development of a new wetlands area south of Highway 22X. The Chinook Nature Park, near the east bank of the Bow River within Fish Creek Provincial Park, will handle storm water from the Deerfoot Trail. Water first enters a series of ponds on at the top of the hill. The water is then piped, to prevent blockage by ice/snow dams in winter, into a marsh area. The spiral forebay causes most particles to settle as the water swirls into a distribution swale. The water then moves through an infiltration zone (shrubby wetlands) into the north pond. Particles continue to settle as the water moves through a weir and into the main pond. This pond, ringed by aquatic vegetation, will hold the water for natural filtration. Any water entering the Bow River will do so as seeping ground water, well-cleansed of human pollutants.

marsh area and distribution swale

shrubby wetlands, north pond, weir

main pond

To learn more about Calgary's natural and engineered wetlands please click here. You will require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view, open and print these pages.