![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/files\/2026\/07\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-07-17-at-3.58.34-PM-769x1024.jpg\")
<\/h3>\nRusty pipes, a toy car, pieces of plastic, electronics, and more. These seem like a random list of items, but they all have one thing in common: they are lying in the Cougar Creek waterways. Visiting Cougar Creek was an incredibly enlightening experience. We saw eagles, learned about invasive Himalayan blackberries, and walked along a lovely creek. Except while walking along the creek, we saw that many stretches of the water had dried up, and that there were excessive amounts of pollution within many areas of the water as well. This stuck with me and made me look more into the topic of this pollution.<\/p>\n
<\/h3>\nThe Cougar Creek Streamkeepers<\/a> are a group of volunteers that help maintain the creeks wellbeing and health. They have listed many things as sources of pollution for the water, but among the most damaging are tire and brake dust, especially for the Salmon population. Researchers have identified a chemical called 6PPD-quinone<\/a>, which is a product of the preservatives in vehicle tires that breaks down once in contact with the environment. The chemical is so lethal to coho salmon that a single drop placed in an Olympic swimming pool<\/a> would be enough to kill at least half of the fish inside it <\/em>(OPB, 2026). This has become a massive problem as in some urban streams, more than 90% of returning coho salmon die before they can spawn (CBC News, 2024). Our cities are built around a traffic model that is very stop-and-go, which is essentially every intersection surrounding Cougar Creek, and that generates the highest amount of chemical output into the environment (Raincoast Conservation Foundation, 2026). Organizations have been pushing for bans on this preservative, but so far, none have been successful.<\/p>\n Nobody is specifically breaking any laws here. You are allowed to have tires, you can drive on roads, and you can drain water out of streets, yet coho salmon also have the right to swim up 1,400 kilometres of waterways to spawn their offspring safely (City of Surrey, 2025). More than that, other fish use the waterways as spawning grounds as well. This is where ecocide has become a very important environmental topic. Ecocide is described as a very serious level of widespread destruction of the environment (White, 2025). We have ingrained something incredibly damaging to the environment into our daily lives. Unfortunately, no individual is responsible, no prosecution is possible as of now, and the only thing most affected is the animals that can do nothing about it.<\/p>\n Why the Law is Not Catching This<\/strong><\/p>\n An article by Rachel Killean talks about many attempts to criminalize ecocide as an international crime, going all the way back as far as the usage of Agent Orange in the Vietnam war (Killean, n.d.). The challenge with all of this is that it has never been unlawful. Many aspects of blatant pollution are obviously criminal, though it is very rarely prosecuted, nor prosecuted harshly. Ecocide arguably has as much damage on the environment, yet it is seen as a product of our society functioning normally.<\/p>\n What the Field Trip Taught Me<\/strong><\/p>\n I believe it is worth mentioning that I had no clue as to our proximity to Cougar Creek at KPU. I think much of the problem with any lack of support for getting these chemicals banned is that people are unaware. They are unaware of what goes into their products, into their waterways, and what ecosystems can be affected around them. Without large publicity to bring light to the ongoing problems, it is difficult, if not impossible, to actually gain support and backing for a large-scale campaign.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rusty pipes, a toy car, pieces of plastic, electronics, and more. These seem like a random list of items, but they all have one thing in common: they are lying in the Cougar Creek waterways. Visiting Cougar Creek was an incredibly enlightening experience. We saw eagles, learned about invasive Himalayan blackberries, and walked along a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1513,"featured_media":1016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-published"],"splot_meta":{"author":"Cameron","license":"","footer":"CBC News. (2024, February 7). B.C. environmental groups request review of tire chemical linked to salmon deaths. https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/chemical-salmon-deaths-1.7108014 City of Surrey. (2025). https:\/\/www.surrey.ca\/about-surrey\/environment\/wildlife-habitats\/fish Cougar Creek Streamkeepers. (n.d.). Cougar Creek. https:\/\/cougarcreekstreamkeepers.ca\/cougar-creek\/ Killean, R. (n.d.). Ecocide law and policy. The Palgrave handbook of environmental policy and law. Palgrave Macmillan. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-031-55387-5_3 OPB. (2026, April 12). Every tire produces a chemical that kills coho salmon. Can Northwest scientists pump the brakes? https:\/\/www.opb.org\/article\/2026\/04\/12\/every-tire-a-chemical-that-kills-coho-salmon-can-northwest-scientists-pump-the-brakes\/ Raincoast Conservation Foundation. (2026). When will Ottawa act to remove salmon-killing chemical from vehicle tires? https:\/\/www.raincoast.org\/2026\/04\/ottawa-salmon-killing-chemical-vehicle-tires\/ White, R. (2025). Ecocidal tendencies of late capitalism. Routledge handbook of green criminology.. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4324\/9781003401629-6"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1040,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions\/1040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/green-criminology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Is it Wrong?<\/h3>\n