"S-steve. I'm 99.999% sure that in the early 1960s the Thompson R had a pure looking river color. A far cry from what it looks today. The river was not polluted as it is today."
--I moved to Kamloops in 1964... I think thats early 60's
--The city of kamloops was basically dumping their effluent into the river with some primary treatment from settlement ponds.
--Ecology students of the then Cariboo college were collecting water samples from kamloops lake to establish baseline data before the addition of Weyco water discharge
--Weyco built the pulp mill in 1972 again adding nutrient to the river however at the time it was aerated and under stricter cotnrol than the city water.
--It was convenient at the time to blame Weyco for the problems of the Thompson however the City of Kamloops was a major contributor being one of the largest growing cities of the time
--People noticed changes to the river downstream and Kamloops lake started to show signs of increased nutrient load.
--The City embarked on a program to modify the treatment of water but still had to dump under permit at some times as did North Kamloops even after the city waste was intergrated.