Victoria's Proposed Sewer Treatment

[profisher]

Just wanted to get a sense of where people sit on this issue. Myself, I'm in the camp who think this is one of the biggest waste of money our generations will see on the Island. If you believe the scientists then you know that the difference in our local ocean before and after are not going to be significant. The same chemical and petroleum pollutants will still pass through the system and on into local waters. So a billion dollars plus, as we all know the costs will go beyond estimates...for what? Can you guys image if that billion dollars was given to local salmon enhancement and stream keepers groups up and down the coast what those funds would do to improve the oceans health coast wide. Not only would the ocean and all sea life benefit but so would all the small coastal towns with the return of healthy and vibrant sport and commercial fisheries that create employment. A strong commercial fishery could likely once again produce enough fish for local and world markets that we could get rid of the salmon farms once and for all. I would gladly support spending a billion dollars of this countries tax revenue for that project instead of the one being rammed down our throats. That is my rant.

 

[reelfast]

so how many millions of gallons of raw sewage is vic pumping into the salt every single day? and you think treating that effluent won't make a difference, that is an astonishing conclusion and one that flies in the face of reality.

 

[scott craven]

I don't think it will make a lot of difference, the treated effluent has been pumped into Juan de Fuca
for a hundred years .
The Ocean is good at flushing itself clean.
A billion dollars could be well spent on cleaning up local rivers and introducing new hatchery programs.

 

[Gunsmith]

I hate to say it but I think our oceans are running out of "flushes" and the environment is running out of "can handle thats".

 

[Englishman]

As to whether the money would be better spent elsewhere, I think there may well be other candidates in theory.

However, if we don't do it we continue to be the only major city between Alaska and the Mexican border still dumping raw sewage intothe ocean. It is a primitive, third world practice which clashes terribly with the beautiful British Columbia mantra. We also annoy our neighbours down south and can never be in a position to lecture others on environmental stewardship and ethical practices. It would be a sham and an embarassment to be talking "down" to anyone else on that score.

So since we do not have the option of spending money, on A or B or C, and the Feds have only offered money for sewage treatment let's do it. I don't know about you folks but I am not comfortable living in the sewage treatment Mombasa of the West Coast (with due respect to folks living in that African town).

NB Lots of links to reports, data and arguments either way here:-
http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/features/sewage/index.html

 

[hambone]

IMO Its an annoying and expensive project but it definitely needs to be done.... simple as that.

 

[Sculpin]

Agree with reelfast on this one. It always blew my mind that Victoria was doing this. Its long overdue.... Victoria has to clean up. Especially with all development that has been added to the downtown sector in last 10 -15 years. I hear you guys it will cost money , but you cant just keep dumping it pretending it will go away. The money is worth it.

Exactly and think how much cheaper it would have been if the city got there act together years ago. It has to be done and it should have been done long ago. The price tag would have been easier to swallow decades ago.

I think of it as compounded karma.

 

[calmsea]

Civilized people clean up after themselves. I'd rather count myself into the civilized category, dont you?

 

[chris73]

...The same chemical and petroleum pollutants will still pass through the system and on into local waters. ...

Why are you saying this, profisher? That is simply not true.

Are there better bangs for the bucks for a billion $? Probably. Fact is that the current situation is shameful for a western country and just because you can't see the impact with your eyes does not mean it has not done harm yet to the environment. They probably thought nothing of dumping all their waste into the Gorge and Inner Harbour 100 years ago and the sea floor is to date hopelessly polluted there. It's high time for an attitude change here and do what we can to reduce our impact.

 

[Silver Streak]

Profisher is right. It is my understanding that this will only be secondary treatment which does not remove heavy metals and other pollutants.
Deep ocean disposal aided by strong currents is an acceptable wastewater/sewage treatment method. There will be no detectable water quality
improvement with this expenditure of a billion dollars. Sure there is localized bottom degradation around the outfall sites but there are
environmental costs associated with any form of treatment. I believe it is a big waste of money. Much more good could be accomplished by
putting this money to better use - as Profisher says.

 

[Cuba Libre]

So its OK to yell about crap from fish farms--- but its OK for us to pollute?? Sounds hypocritical to me.... Do it!

 

[beemer]

it is a step in the right direction , but is still a waste of money for a system that will still be releasing chemicals and pollutants in lardge quantity into the environment. Craven is right that shiiit has been pumped into the Juan de Fuca for the past 100 years and it actually has probably improved the marine life! The problem is the detergents used for washing clothes and many other chemicals and prescription drugs that pass through humans. We have no idea what prescription drugs will do in the marine environment (in large urban areas female seals have actually become "on the pill" due to human run off , maybe not a bad thing!). We do know that killerwhales have a large buildup in PBDE's that have moved up through the food chain from microorganisms to chinook and into the top predator, PBDE's are used in childrens clothing as a fire retardent and it is believed that it makes it way into the food chain through Clover Point discharge.

I find it funny that Victorians tout themselves as environmentalists and outdoorsman yet they can figure out a pretty simple problem. It is my belief that the proposed system is nothing more than a exercise in public relations and will probably cost double or triple the estimate. Why are we not looking at a completely closed loop system including storm runoff? why are we flushing our toilets with drinking grade water? Why are we settling for a mediocre system at best when we can do something really cool and progressive? Has Canada really become that lame?

beemer

 

[banger17]

it is a step in the right direction , but is still a waste of money for a system that will still be releasing chemicals and pollutants in lardge quantity into the environment. Craven is right that shiiit has been pumped into the Juan de Fuca for the past 100 years and it actually has probably improved the marine life! The problem is the detergents used for washing clothes and many other chemicals and prescription drugs that pass through humans. We have no idea what prescription drugs will do in the marine environment (in large urban areas female seals have actually become "on the pill" due to human run off , maybe not a bad thing!). We do know that killerwhales have a large buildup in PBDE's that have moved up through the food chain from microorganisms to chinook and into the top predator, PBDE's are used in childrens clothing as a fire retardent and it is believed that it makes it way into the food chain through Clover Point discharge.

I find it funny that Victorians tout themselves as environmentalists and outdoorsman yet they can figure out a pretty simple problem. It is my belief that the proposed system is nothing more than a exercise in public relations and will probably cost double or triple the estimate. Why are we not looking at a completely closed loop system including storm runoff? why are we flushing our toilets with drinking grade water? Why are we settling for a mediocre system at best when we can do something really cool and progressive? Has Canada really become that lame?

beemer

X2 - well said!

 

[wolf]

Agreed with the last comments but to make it better why not go back to 100 year old systeam and disconnect your toilets got out into the backyard dig a big hole really deep put a outhouse and **** away now you know where the term "dont **** in your own backyard" came from now dont ya LOL LOL
times have changed in a 100 years time some us did as well.

BUT if they are going to build it I do think it should be doing every thing and "TRY" and stop and contaniments getting into the ocean the fish farms have that covered enough already

 

[chris73]

Profisher is right. It is my understanding that this will only be secondary treatment which does not remove heavy metals and other pollutants.
Deep ocean disposal aided by strong currents is an acceptable wastewater/sewage treatment method. There will be no detectable water quality
improvement with this expenditure of a billion dollars. Sure there is localized bottom degradation around the outfall sites but there are
environmental costs associated with any form of treatment. I believe it is a big waste of money. Much more good could be accomplished by
putting this money to better use - as Profisher says.

I find it quite ironic when some people comment on thing that they have very little clue about - at best what they have read in some front line acticles in the press. For instance and fyi, heavy metals generally attach to particles, so as long as you remove the suspended solids from your wastewater stream you will achieve a considerable reduction in heavy metals in effluent. BTW, Victoria is hardly a industrialized city that produces heavy metals en masse. Anyways, please do me the favour and spares us the uneducated half-truth in at least this topic that I may have some tiny bit of expertise in. lol

 

[Charlie]

It really is time to stop dumping raw sewage (and all the other pollutants “heavy metals” etc associated) in the ocean.

“Exposure to excessive concentrations of cadmium and mercury has produced adverse effects on health in certain communities. Fears exist that some of the other so called "heavy metals" may have similar toxic effects. In addition,some of these elements may have detrimental effects upon crop growth and yield. They may also have adverse effects in the environment on other living organisms if their disposal and dispersal is not regulated in such a manner as to prevent the accumulation of toxic concentrations.”

“Raw sewage contains significant concentrations of "heavy metals" Which are not degraded by the processes of sewage treatment, they may leave the sewage treatment works in either the final effluent or the sludges produced. Monitoring the concentrations of these metals in the various types of samples produced during sewage treatment is a time consuming task. It is necessary if guidelines for the disposal of sewage sludge to agricultural land are to be complied with, and if rivers to which sewage effluent is discharged,and which are subsequently used as sources of potable supply, are to be protected from excessive concentrations of certain heavy metals, which might infringe standard for drinking water quality.

“Almost all of Victoria’s sewage — about 1,500 liters per second — is discharged through two pipes running more than a kilometre off the city’s southern coast. Aside from a 6mm mesh that sieves out condoms, feminine products and other large particulates, the sewage is untreated."

“The new plan, announced last week at an upscale hotel on the Victoria waterfront, would see sewage funneled to a waterfront treatment plant at the entrance to the city’s iconic Inner Harbour. After liquid sewage was filtered away, the remaining “sludge” would be piped 20 kilometres north to a “biosolids digestion facility” at the city’s Hartland Landfill.”

So, it looks the only real question left (since the untreated waste is no longer going to be discharged into the "ocean") how is the "sludge" going to be monitored and what is BC going to do with any "heavy metals" etc, found in that "sludge"?

Not sure what some are thinking when referring to that 100 year timeframe theory? As in:

“The population of the City of Victoria was 80,017 in 2011. The Victoria Census Metropolitan Area, comprising thirteen municipalities informally referred to as Greater Victoria, has a population of 344,615 and is the largest urban area on Vancouver Island. By population, Greater Victoria is the 15th largest metropolitan area in Canada. The Capital Regional District, which includes additional rural areas, has a total population of 345,164.”

The Greater Victoria population now equates to approximately the entire population of British Columbia in 1911, which was 392,480. BC population in 1901 was 178,657. In other words, you currently have almost TWICE the amount of people shitting in the ocean as the total population of BC in 1901.

 

[Mike_R]

Wolf
When I lived in Langford we "shat in our back yard" it was called a septic field. Then the city of Langford decided that wasn't good enough and due to pressure from real estate developers decided to put in a sewage line down our street. This upped our taxes and they pressured home owners to hook up to it.

 

[bee15]

all those jumbo prawns will not be off victoria and what feeds on them will be gone also crd has lots of tests done on waters around victorithe ocean has adapted to the sewage in in all these years the waters are checked for coliforms regularly

 

[Seafever]

Some researchers looked into this issue a few years back.

The chemicals do damage, yes..............but they said it was the toiletpaper that does a whole bunch of damage...because....the t.p. never gets to the point where it is dissolved, it just disintegrates into smaller micro-particles and these collect like thick dust on all stationary organisms etc.

Apparently out front a ways off Clover Point there is a blanket of this stuff all over the place, choking off life.
But the average person isn't going to see it unless they bring up some pics (which they did back then at the time).

If you caught a salmon or a ling off Clover Point ever....I'd be careful about eating it. You never know what they'll eat or take a hit at.

I mean if the "Turd" hoochy works so good off WCVI......then maybe they like the real thing when they scoot by off Victoria.

I know Lings will wait by sewer outfalls and take a shot at brownies as they wizz by.

 

[Sculpin]

all those jumbo prawns will not be off victoria and what feeds on them will be gone also crd has lots of tests done on waters around victorithe ocean has adapted to the sewage in in all these years the waters are checked for coliforms regularly

Someone said it's an accepted method of sewage treatment. Post up any article in North America from a civilized city where this is accepted?

One less black eye for British Columbia. Not only that we can finally get rid of that irritating Mr. Floatie LOL.