Iron

Hard to believe there is not some sort of iron mine around Bella Coola.  Everywhere you go in the Valley you see evidence of iron - in the water.  In particular the red rust colour you can see in many of the small streams right now is created by an iron consuming bacteria that produces red slime which accumulates in slow moving creeks.  As we enter the low flow period for our streams in late March and early April it becomes quite noticeable.  It's not unique to the Bella Coola Valley, a little bit of looking around on the internet shows other areas have iron producing bacteria in creeks and water systems.  It doesn't cause a lot of harm in the creeks that are moving because it tends to move through especially on the occassional higher water or in the spring and fall freshets.  In the real slow creeks and ponds it can gradually build up deep mucky deposits that choke out the bottom when the lower layers start producing their own concoction of black anoxic layers with a  hydrogen sulfide smell.


The conditions required for it's growth are oxygen, iron and water, and we have a number of the valley bottom streams that have all those.  The slime is created when the little bacteria cells exude ferric hydroxide to coat their cells.  If you are unfortunate enough to have a domestic water supply that is high in iron, then it can cause you more grief with growth of the bacteria in wells, waterlines and pumps.  You will often see an oily sheen on the water surface in some of the still water and ponds around the valley which have a lot of iron bacteria buildup.  If you poke the surface and it stays broken up, it's just the natural oils from the breakdown -- you haven't discovered the next big oil deposit. Grizzly