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Reflections on the conversation with Ray Lewis

Leandra Vanbaelinghem

I found Mr. Ray Lewis' presentation extremely valuable for our Brandt's creek project as well as for understanding how a community can try to advance change for sustainability. One of the main aspects that Mr. Lewis embodied was how caring and persevering can help you make a change, despite resistance. His career and passion are in aerospace, but during his career and now during his retirement, he actively strives to improve Kelowna in many ways. He participates in Grime Busters and is part of the neighbourhood association and neighbourhood union. Knowing that such organizations exist was very motivating, and seeing that people want and put effort into being part of such volunteer organizations despite the long, tedious application processes is comforting. Some additional individual actions that Mr. Lewis has done not only make him an example of a sustainability and safety advocate but also bring about Dr. Dulic's point that caring makes people want to act sustainably and address sustainability issues. This is reflected in Mr. Lewis's initiative of getting an engineer to check on a heavy truck parking space near Brandt's creek that had cracks and would sooner or later collapse from erosion, and also advocating for a cement factory to reduce their carcinogenic pollution. Something particularly difficult to hear was that Mr. Lewis, as part of a volunteering association, pushed water testing in Brandt's creek with no reciprocity from the city of Kelowna. The water quality tests were paid for and carried out, but once the concerning results were given to the respective staff, they were not even looked at. This only reinforced my group's project focus of exploring Brandt's creek's hydrology and water quality. Similarly, a riparian plan along a part of Brandt's creek was abandoned halfway through. These were very disappointing to hear but useful to understand the importance of persisting and forcing ourselves to see things through, which will likely be a challenge for all of us in our class, no matter our discipline.

The presentation also helped me learn about specific Brandt's creek features that unnoticeably contribute to the high-risk flood problem attributed to such human-made narrow channeled creeks. I learned that sediment accumulation at the bottom of the creek from erosion raises the water level, increasing flooding risks. Additionally, learning that water crusts are not only harmful for eutrophication but can also detach and clog or restrict water flow through the creek, increasing flood risks, shows me how it is important of investigate known problematic issues for creeks in a thorough manner to identify all relevant consequences of a creek's characteristic. Lastly, it was useful to walk through the geography of Brandt's creek sequentially and see how it changes from the north end to the rotary marsh. This increased my understanding of Brandt's creek, having yet to walk through the entirety of the creek. It also made me understand the importance of place-based learning, even if one comes from a discipline that would not usually be on "the field."

Thomas Letcher-Nicholls

This is super great Leandra, thanks! I share your admiration for Mr. Lewis’ care, hard work and perseverance. I was also very disappointed by the lack of support that Mr. Lewis has received from the city, despite his efforts in water testing and advocacy against the concrete plant. That was really hard to hear.

I also really like your point about how Mr. Lewis’ presentation was so thorough and useful despite him not being from “the field”. It is so important to have local knowledge that is based in a deep and long connection to this place! Ray was so helpful and knowledgeable about the creek and I am so grateful for that.

Thomas Letcher-Nicholls

I am really thankful for Ray Lewis taking the time to come and speak to us. I was inspired by his deep knowledge and care for his place and community; and I really admire his engagement and activism!

Mr. Lewis’ understanding of the creek and the area will be invaluable for us; he was able to answer many questions that I think we have been puzzled by, for example why the water mysteriously transforms from a trickle to a rush after a certain underground stretch of the creek – he explained that there are stormwater channels that join the flow of the water. He was also able to tell us about the Adopt-A-Stream program; and he had many insights on silt levels in the creek and some questions of water quality. Most broadly, Mr. Lewis’ presentation made me really hopeful about the power of local communities to understand and make changes in the places they call home. But I was certainly disappointed by that fact that despite the work the community had put into having water quality tests, the city had done nothing about the creek; and it was really angering to hear about the concrete factory’s refusal to care for the environment and local community.

Like Leandra, I was struck by the way that Mr. Lewis has continued to advocate for his community despite all the frustrations that he must have faced. I think it would be really easy to be disheartened and discouraged by all these obstacles and delays. But Mr. Lewis and his community have continued to do the work and I think that’s really inspiring.

In the class presentations and our reflections, we have spoken a lot about the importance of care for place; Mr. Lewis’ presentation showed how care and perseverance can make change, or maybe at the very least sow the seeds for change. He highlighted many of the challenges that the creek faces – including silt, erosion, and pollution – and it was certainly very confronting. But I was also really moved by his commitment and care. Mr. Lewis and his wife adopted the part of the creek that we are focusing on, despite that being “the bad and the ugly” of the creek in his presentation. In our cities now, I think there are a lot of rogue spaces like these (that Madeline showed are actually surviving and thriving in new, odd and beautiful ways), and it is so important to lean into them and show care. Professor Garrad shared his vision for Brandt’s Creek, and I think that would be amazing. I think Ray modelled the kind of work and ethics that will be required to achieve this.

Annie Furman

Thanks for this response, Tom! I agree, the care that Mr. Lewis and his community have put into Brandt’s Creek (especially surrounding difficulties with the concrete plant), despite the challenges they have faced, is quite inspiring. I wonder how greater Kelowna’s perspectives about “the bad and the ugly” stretches of Brandt’s Creek would change knowing how much care and concern people like Mr. Lewis have for it. Would it change the “it’s not a creek, it’s a ditch” narrative that Madi talked about regarding how Brandt’s Creek is made exempt from regulations if a wider audience saw value (to humans and to non-humans) in the creek?

Hoda Pourpirali

Mr. Ray Lewis' speech about Brandt’s creek was very interesting to me. Once again it showed me that there are people who genuinely care about their surroundings, and they continue to investigate and make others care until hopefully, they can achieve their goals. I am glad to see all these people who inspire others to see and care about what they think is wrong.

We have visited a part of the creek and witnessed many changes that have happened to the nature of the creek over the past century or so. It is mentioned that the industries around the creek, along with the city of Kelowna, play a significant role in the decisions made for the creek. I believe that at certain levels, there is resistance against any significant change in the creek. I believe we have to see where we are standing. How much do we really know about the problems of the creek? How critical these problems are to the residents and to the environment? How can we get strong support from citizens? How can we persuade the local government to act to eliminate the problems? And finally, how would all these changes affect the local industry? These are some basic questions that I think we should ask ourselves and it shows that in reality, there is no black or white. We have to choose the best possible solution with the least consequences, with respect to our priorities.

They mentioned the studies they have done about the water in the creek, and in the end, they were not paid much attention. This is an important point that we must address in our project. Mr. Lewis also talked about some issues related to floods and pointed out many features that we have to notice on our first visit to Brandt’s Creek since I didn’t notice them before.

Annie Furman

It was very interesting to hear from Ray Lewis, someone with considerable personal history interacting with Brandt’s Creek. As someone who has walked by the concrete plant on Brandt’s Creek several times and frequently wondered what impact it was having on water quality, it was both important and incredibly frustrating to hear from Mr. Lewis about his experiences trying to get water quality testing done by the city (and make the results accessible). It strikes me as incredibly important that we have accurate and publicly accessible water quality tests done for Brandt’s Creek as an initial step before making any proposals that would impact water flow/pavement permeability. It would be a very undesirable outcome for Kelowna to increase the permeability of the areas surrounding Brandt’s Creek to increase water absorption into the soil (as in adaptations discussed by Dr. Schreier) only for contaminants from the concrete factory to also leach into the soil.

If the city will not make public their records of water quality testing, I wonder what else can be done. What would happen if scientists from UBCO collected samples and ran their own tests? I acknowledge that I know very little about the toxins involved in the concrete industry, but I suspect it would be beneficial to do some research into potential specific concerns here.

It was also great to hear more from Mr. Lewis about the Adopt-a-Stream program, which we’ve noted the signs for along Brandt’s Creek but at the start of term still had many questions about. I’m glad to hear that “adopting a stream” isn’t just a financial commitment that an individual or group is making, but actually a commitment to spend time interacting with and cleaning up the creek (though it certainly seems like some sections of creek could benefit from more than twice yearly clean-ups). I now know that the city has people re-register each year for the section of creek they are adopting, but I wonder how often the city re-evaluates its criteria for adopting streams.

Leandra Vanbaelinghem

As is the focus of our Brandt's creek report, I agree entirely with Annie about the importance of water quality assessment. Mr. Lewis's experience with water quality testing and the unchanged pollution from the cement plant shows the little care and inefficiency of the environmental representatives of Kelowna. I like Annie's idea of having potential scientists at UBCO collect and perform water quality tests on Brandt's creek. At Mount Allison University, where I did my undergrad, as part of my environmental biology course, we partnered with a water monitoring organization to sample and test water streams in waterfowl, a local waterbody in Sackville, New Brunswick. The tests assessed the concentration of certain bio-indicators, such as E. coli. This past experience tells me this is definitely something that can be organized by the UBCO community and made publicly available. I also agree with Annie that learning about the "adopting a stream" program from Mr. Lewis was very useful and answered many questions. It is shocking how little information on "adopt a stream" is available for others to learn. This lack of dissemination probably restricts the number of volunteers this program is getting, especially because Kelowna's main inflow is newcomers.

Sofia Bahmutsky

Ray Lewis is the president of the Kelowna Downtown Knox Mountain Residents Association and a long-time resident of Kelowna. He gave a really great presentation to the IGS class about his knowledge of Brandt’s Creek and general information about the north-end area of downtown Kelowna. His demeanour was approachable and open, he was a delightful speaker, and I would’ve enjoyed longer discussion with him after the class was over. He seems like a person that could inspire others to have a stronger sense of community and neighbourhood. Ray explained the “good” or well-maintained parts of Brandt’s Creek are in the northern Glenmore highlands, while the majority of the creek (about 70%) is channelized and 60% has no canopy or riparian shrub cover. Many storm drains empty into the creek throughout its course to where it empties into Rotary Marsh and the Okanagan Lake. Much of Ray’s talk reflected the information that Madeline had brought up in her presentation.

What I really appreciated from Ray’s talk is how knowledgeable he was about the issues surrounding the creek and his neighbourhood even though it was not his formal training (his career was in aerospace communications). This showed a great deal of compassion and care for his environmental surroundings and the greater community he resides in. In fact, he was able to answer questions that the class had asked the previous lecturer and our professors who did not know answers to. Specifically, the issue of nearing downtown Brandt’s Creek has a very shallow depth at a certain culvert leading under a street intersection, while the culvert on the exit has a much greater water volume. Ray informed us that it is due to stormwater drainage which joins up with the creek underground.

Besides the knowledge about Brandt’s Creek, Ray spoke quite a bit about the OK Ready Mix concrete factory located in downtown and the long-standing issues surrounding the environmental pollution and increases of cancer frequency in his neighbourhood. I found this to be a similarity to the Erin Brockovich story I knew from childhood. I admired how Ray was so knowledgeable about serious issues in Kelowna and especially about Brandt’s Creek, I feel that his lecture provided so many useful pieces of information for the IGS 585 project. It would be nice if we all could have Ray’s level of care, dedication, and sense of activism to our neighbourhoods and passion for where we live, even if it’s not our formal training or vocation.

Shaiyan Siddique

Mr. Raymond Lewis is an entrepreneur based in Kelowna and a spokesperson for the Kelowna Downtown Knox Mountain (KDKM) Neighbourhood Association. The presentation by Mr. Lewis was distinct from all other presentations so far, since unlike Mr. Lewis, all the other presenters were connected with academia in various capacities. Mr. Lewis’s involvement in the effort towards the sustainability of the Downtown Knox Mountain neighbourhood and Brandt’s creek stems purely from a point of passion and care, which could be felt during the discussions. I was particularly impressed by the depth of knowledge that Mr. Lewis possessed regarding the history, state and sustainability of Brandt’s creek and the surrounding area despite hailing from a completely unrelated career path.

The title of Mr. Lewis’s presentation “the good, the bad and the ugly” was based on the 1966 Clint Eastwood film and, while unrelatable for most of the students of this class, summarized the current state of Brandt’s creek very effectively. Mr. Lewis explained that of the overall 13 km length of Brandt’s creek, the northern part in Glenmore was the good part with the state of the creek deteriorating progressively until it drains in the Okanagan lake. Mr. Lewis highlighted the industrial activity in the downtown area and particularly the careless attitude of the Kelowna Ready Mix concrete factory as a great threat. From previous presentations and field visits, we have come to know that the channelled segment running past the SunRype factory is often considered as the worst segment of the creek, with people often mistaking it for a ditch.

In this regard, I am thankful to Mr. Lewis for clearing up a confusion that I had regarding the legal status of Brandt’s creek from the previous presentation. Mr. Lewis confirmed that despite being artificially channelled in more than one segments, the entire length of Brandt’s creek is considered a natural waterbody and is hence under the protection of the BC Ministry of Environment (MoE). This is a very important aspect that we need to keep in mind for our group project, since any proposed interventions would be subject to approval from the BC MoE, and such administrative processing is also time consuming. The same was also reflected in Mr. Lewis’s experience, with dredging work on the silted up portions of the creek being disrupted due to restrictions from the ministry.

Ilyas Kanybek

I agree with Shaiyan that the title of the presentation was particularly interesting and perhaps slightly ironic as well. I think it even can ben considered as an internal communication in a way. An outsider would not understand what the discussion is about and what the ugly and the bad and the good each stands for in the context of Brandts' creek. I also very much agree with my classmate Shaiyan that the presentation bu Mr Lewis have helped all of us to get a little clearer view and understanding of the legal nature of the creek and its status within the municipality of the city. I think that while there Caring people like Mr Lewis Brandts creek has a future

Daisy Pullman

Ray Lewis is the president of the Kelowna Downtown Knox Mountain Resident Association, whose jurisdiction intersects with the north-end neighbourhood where our study section of Brandt’s Creek is located. He has lived in the area for over 30 years and therefore has an extensive knowledge of the area, and has witnessed a significant amount of change over the decades.

Ray told us about Kelowna’s ‘adopt-a-stream’ program, and the ‘grime-busters’ volunteer group who clear rubbish from the creek once a month except in the winter. It was encouraging to learn that there are local residents who are invested enough in the wellbeing of the creek to literally get their hands dirty and try to clean it up.

Some of the other useful information provided by Ray Lewis was about the businesses operating in the area. He highlighted the industrial waste treatment plant on the corner of Ethel and Crowley as a potential source of water pollution, and the Sun Rype factory for releasing hot water into the creek. The cement factory on Ellis and Recreation was of particular concern for Ray Lewis, as he pointed out the environmental and health concerns created by the cement dust that escapes the site.