[boden]

From Sea to Stinking Sea
by author Renee Blackstone

http://www.alive.com/7036a17a2.php




Bathroom jokes aside, few of us think about sewage, assuming that what we flush away will somehow take care of itself. But such an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude will no longer float, so to speak.

Even eight years after the Walkerton, Ontario, tragedy where seven people died and 1,200 people were sickened by E. coli contamination from sewage leaking into their municipal water supply, Canada is still an environmental bad boy, lagging behind many developed countries in the way it handles its waste water.

Given the overwhelming evidence that what we put into our environment will eventually come back to haunt us, it seems mind-boggling that anyone might actually be opposed to treating municipal waste water, which Environment Canada described in its 2001 report The State of Municipal Wastewater Effluents in Canada as “one of the largest threats to the quality of Canadian waters.”

In fact, some of our biggest polluters are also among the most scenic–coastal cities, where the attitude seems to be that ocean currents will take care of whatever foul things are spewed out.

Failing Grades

One of the worst offenders is the quaint city of Victoria, seat of the British Columbia government. Every year, Victoria and its suburbs dump more than 34 billion litres of untreated sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a fetid soup that includes not only human waste and disease-carrying organisms but also some 200 identified chemicals, many of which are toxic to aquatic life.

Yet despite years of debate, and despite orders from the BC government earlier this year that the Capital Regional District (in which Victoria is the major city) is to begin drawing up plans for sewage treatment, a number of vocal opponents–including local Liberal MP Keith Martin–have risen up to denounce the project.

This head-in-the-sand approach isn’t limited to Victoria, and it is what prompted the authors of the National Sewage Report Card III produced in 2004 by the Sierra Legal Defence Fund (now Ecojustice Canada), to state baldly: “Our sewage problems are comprehensive and countrywide–from sea to stinking sea.”

The United States has required at least secondary sewage treatment for all its cities and towns for 30 years now, and the European Union adopted similar standards for its member nations three years ago, according to Christianne Wilhelmson, clean air and water program coordinator for the Georgia Strait Alliance (GSA), an environmental group dedicated to protecting the marine environment of the strait.

But Canada has no national standards, and as a result, major cities such as Vancouver, Montreal, and Halifax continue to dump billions of litres of raw or nearly raw sewage into our oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams every year.

According to Ecojustice Canada’s National Sewage Report Card, Vancouver discharged approximately 22 billion untreated litres of waste water from combined sewer overflows into Georgia Strait and the Fraser River in 2001 while Montreal continues to dump 900 billion litres of only primary treated sewage into the St. Lawrence River each year.

A Chemical Cocktail

Meanwhile, development of better sensing technology shows we may have more to worry about than obviously harmful substances such as the mercury, lead, chromium, copper, organochlorine compounds (such as PCBs), and hydrocarbons that are being dumped into our waters along with insufficiently treated sewage.

After a five-month investigation, the Associated Press reported this spring that testing in 61 major US municipal water sources for prescription and over-the-counter drug residues revealed a proverbial cocktail of up to 56 human and veterinary pharmaceuticals or their byproducts, including the active ingredients in pain killers, antibiotics, cholesterol drugs, antipsychotics, hormone supplements, and other powerful medications.

The report said that although some of those drugs were flushed down toilets, most of the residues came from human excretion, a worrisome trend when you consider how many more drugs an aging population is inclined to take.

Although the tests were conducted in the US, Canada is not immune to similar pharmaceutical contamination. In fact, only a handful of Canadian cities, among them Calgary, Edmonton, and Whistler, BC, have tertiary treatment, which is advanced enough to remove most unwanted substances.
Environment Canada is currently working on formulating national standards on sewage treatment, expected to be released in late fall, says GSA’s Wilhelmson. But even with that, don’t expect the country’s biggest offenders to clean up their mess any time soon. For example, Vancouver isn’t planning to bring its plants up to standard for at least another decade, and Victoria won’t be cleaned up until 2016, Wilhelmson says.




The big stink, it seems, is not going to go away any time soon.


Here's a link to an article in today's NY Times about polluted tap water.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html?hp

[SpongeG]

yeah its pretty gross i can't believe they would still do it in 2009

[boden]

yeah its pretty gross i can't believe they would still do it in 2009

Halifax is worse!

[Wishblade]

Halifax is worse!

well, not anymore. We actually have sewage treatment now. Mind you it cost almost $350 million plus a major malfunction, but we have it lol.

[Mike K.]

The article in question reads more like an op-ed than an actual informative article. Nowhere does the author reference scientific studies that show our current treatment is not as damaging to the environment as hyped up in news stories like this, and nowhere does the article discuss what to do with the sewage treatment by-products (i.e. sewage sludge).

[craneSpotter]

Actually, Victoria just may have one of the best sanitary sewage treatment systems currently operating in Canada, with the least real impact on the environment. The land based plants that other cities build actually mimic what Victoria is fortunate enough to have nearby naturally :)

I love all the hype words used like "raw" "dump" "floaties" etc LOL. It causes some to get worked up without even knowing what the hell they are talking about. It also amuses me that so many think that their required land based sewage treatment plants are so good that the concentrated solids and chemical pollutants contained in that sewage magically disappear off the face of the earth :haha:

Victoria's system is certainly misunderstood by many who just don't know enough about the subject and can only associate sanitary sewage treatment with large land based plants placed on a river or lake. If you are on small water sources like a river or lake, secondary treatment is REQUIRED by current government environmental standards. Further, if you are unlucky enough to be a large city located on a small river with low water volumes, even Tertiary treatment may be required! These treatment requirements were set to avoid ecological disasters downstream from urban areas that discharge sewage effluent into rivers that others (human and animals) need and used as a primary water source. If you go a little further than the government required minimum sanitary sewage treatment standards, good for you, maybe somebody will even give you an award for going that extra step.

This letter, signed by several marine scientists, was sent to our local newspaper (source (http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=c96cd0c4-4755-45b4-b8e7-cae90c5486d7)) and sums up Victoria's sewage situation quite well.

Land-based plant would be ineffective

BY TIMES COLONIST (VICTORIA)APRIL 23, 2008


SEWAGE TREATMENT: NO

- - -

We are a group of local marine scientists committed to the study, wise use and protection of the ocean. Our goal is to clarify some of the scientific issues associated with Victoria's sewage treatment, that still seem misunderstood. More information can be found at www.rstv.ca.

The Capital Regional District employs preliminary sewage treatment in which effluent is discharged through six-millimetre screens, eliminating larger objects from the effluent.

The strong, churning currents in Juan de Fuca Strait then act as an efficient natural treatment plant, using tidal energy to process the effluent and avoiding the waste of large amounts of energy in a land-based plant.

In this respect, Victoria's location is unusual and fortunate. Land-based treatment would certainly be required were the outfalls in Saanich Inlet, the Inner Harbour or on a lake or river.

Discharges through the Clover Point and Macaulay Point outfalls have caused little or no harm to the marine environment. Chemicals associated with the effluent are certainly detectable, but this does not mean that harm is being done. Biological communities around the outfalls are thriving.

Moreover, the CRD's increasingly rigid source control programs have recently led to measurable decreases in chemical concentrations.

Some of the chemicals detected in the discharge, albeit at very low concentrations, are potentially toxic and persistent.

These chemicals warrant further discussion. With land-based treatment some would end up in the sludge, presenting problems elsewhere, while others would still remain in the liquid effluent discharged from a land-based plant.

Many of the chemicals of concern enter the ocean mainly from sources other than wastewater discharge, so that land-based treatment of Victoria's wastewater would lead to a minor, even negligible, improvement. The only solution for these chemicals might be even more stringent source control or the elimination of their use altogether.

In justifying the decision to require the CRD to move to land-based treatment, the B.C. government cited the 2006 SETAC report. This report did not actually call for land-based treatment.

Although the report stated that the present system "is not a long-term answer to wastewater disposal," it did not specify exactly why, or how long the "long-term" is. Unfortunately, the CRD cancelled plans for public review and discussion of the SETAC report.

Similarly, the MacDonald Report, commissioned by the province and cited as a further reason for land-based treatment, has not received an independent review.

That report concluded that substances found near the outfalls warranted their "preliminary designation as contaminated sites." However, in the words of the SETAC report, "Note that contamination does not imply effects, but merely that concentrations are above background levels."

The SETAC report also supports our main point: Land-based sewage treatment in Victoria is a low priority for protecting the marine environment. The SETAC panel noted that "if citizens' concern is with contaminants with distant effects, and especially with their impacts on endangered species and ecosystems, it can be argued that other policies would provide a greater return per dollar."

There are more pressing priorities for the protection of the marine environment. For example, we would welcome a federal-provincial initiative for more vigorous action on the establishment of marine protected areas and marine conservation areas and quicker action on developing recovery plans for at-risk marine species.

At the local level, the nearshore marine environment would benefit from fixing of the cross-connections between the sanitary sewer and storm-water runoff systems in the CRD, as these do occasionally lead to fouling of our shores with raw sewage.

We are concerned that land-based secondary sewage treatment in Victoria would be largely ineffective with respect to major regional environmental issues and would divert public funds away from positive actions that really could provide significant marine environmental protection.

The undersigned have served voluntarily on municipal, provincial and international committees dealing with issues related to waste management and marine environmental health and would be happy to do so again.

Peter M. Chapman

Golder Associates Ltd., aquatic ecologist, ecotoxicologist and environmental risk assessor

Jay Cullen,

UVic chemical oceanographer

John Dower,

Chris Garrett,

Lansdowne professor of Ocean Physics, UVic, physical oceanographer

Jack Littlepage,

UVic marine biologist

Rob Macdonald,

Institute of Ocean Sciences, chemical oceanographer

Tim Parsons,

UBC biological oceanographer

Tom Pedersen,

dean of science, UVic, marine geochemist.

Rick Thomson,

IOS, physical oceanographer.

Diana Varela,

UVic biological oceanographer

I agree with the experts on the subject. I also agree that our current system will not be viable forever as when we grow to a certain point, the deep water dilution will no longer be effective. Before that time we need to look at land based treatment. In fact, a few small scale sanitary sewage treatment facilities are already in operation in the region.

Pollutant concentration is certainly a problem with sanitary sewage treatment, as it is with untreated storm water discharges which contain pesticides, herbicides, hydrocarbons and other damaging chemicals. Our region is trying educate people on how to properly dispose of chemicals, paints and pharmaceuticals and to stop the use of pesticides and herbicides on their gardens and lawns unless they are environmentally friendly ones. In fact our region is promoting letting your lawn go brown in the summer to conserve water and reduce runoff of harmful chemicals that are commonly used on lawns each year. I agree that source control is the way to go, not using up extra land and energy to clean sewer water of people's poor and lazy habits ;)

Recently two locations were selected for large land based secondary treatment plants costing over $1 Billion, however the costs and environmental impact of large treatment plants is being debated.

[Architype]

Governments are more likely to do something about it when it becomes offensive to the human senses. Have a look at the St. John's NL sewage cleanup project which also services two of the suburbs, with costs escalating about 50% from the original estimate to over $135 million. It required blasting away a large cliff adjacent to the downtown area, but I believe it is at least partially operational now, ahead of Victoria -

http://www.stjohns.ca/cityservices/environment/harbour/cleanup.jsp

[Mike K.]

Governments are more likely to do something about it when it becomes offensive to the human senses. Have a look at the St. John's NL sewage cleanup project which also services two of the suburbs, with costs escalating about 50% from the original estimate to over $135 million. It required blasting away a large cliff adjacent to the downtown area, but I believe it is at least partially operational now, ahead of Victoria -

http://www.stjohns.ca/cityservices/environment/harbour/cleanup.jsp

Precisely.

Welcome to the age of optics management.

[Dmajackson]

Halifax is worse!

Halifax has four plants fully operational now I believe. The Bedford and Eastern Passage ones have been running for decades, and Dartmouth and Herring Cove were comissioned within the last year. The Halifax one is partially operational and should be completely repaired in a couple of months.

Since only the city of Halifax isn't being treated properly right now I'd say just over a 100'000 citizens are dumping into the harbour.

So defnitely better than Victoria's 300'000+

[agrant]

Having primary treatment really only takes away half the nasty stuff, to put it simply. Vancouver probably pumps out more crap from its two primary facilities than Victoria does with no treatment.

[boden]

The article in question reads more like an op-ed than an actual informative article. Nowhere does the author reference scientific studies that show our current treatment is not as damaging to the environment as hyped up in news stories like this, and nowhere does the article discuss what to do with the sewage treatment by-products (i.e. sewage sludge).

This article is not a scientific paper, nor is it a newspaper article. It is from an online blog, and she makes her valid point....loud and clear.

[rrskylar]

How can dumping untreated raw sewage from a city of 350K into the ocean be a good thing or how can this be even a bit excusable? Shame on Victoria!

[craneSpotter]

How can dumping untreated raw sewage from a city of 350K into the ocean be a good thing or how can this be even a bit excusable? Shame on Victoria!

Because our natural ocean treatment has been found to be more efficient than building a land based plant that does the same thing. The ocean treats it naturally - we use a massive, deep strait to treat our effluent: after primary screening to remove the bulk of solids, the effluent gets discharged and is immediately diluted to 1/1600 into the deep ocean by two outlet diffusers a significant distance offshore. The volumes of ocean water we are talking here are huge. The ocean and its organisms then perform the secondary treatment (that the land based plants mimic) natuarally with no ill effects. Tertiary treatment isn't required at this point due to the low concentrations in the massive volumes of water we discharge into.

Victoria also has an extensive monitoring system to ensure no damage is being done to the environment (concentrations meets standards) and their are no public health concerns from the treatment plume.

Here is a brief explanation of Winnipeg's land based treatment system, and why Winnipeg's (or any city on a river/lake or shallow harbour/strait/channel with the wrong currents) has to treat its sewage the way it does(link (http://members.shaw.ca/gp.lagasse/process_summary.htm))

THE IMPORTANCE OF TREATING WASTEWATER

The role of the Water Pollution Control Centres is to help control the pollution of the City's rivers. It does this by treating wastewater to remove inorganic solids such as sand and gravel, and by reducing the amount of organic material before it is released to the City's rivers. Treated wastewater is 90-95 percent free of organic material present in sewers (as measured by the standard 5-day carbonaceous Biochemical Oxygen Demand (CBOD5) analysis).

The process used to treat sewage, also called wastewater, is very similar to the natural decomposition that would occur if wastewater was released directly into Winnipeg's rivers. Bacteria would feed on the organic materials and break them down, using up the oxygen in the water. This would decrease the oxygen in the river, so that healthy populations of fish and aquatic life could not live there. As these organic materials decomposed and caused septic conditions, they would also give off unpleasant odors and create a public health concern.

Speeding up and controlling the decomposition of the organic material in sewage inside the treatment plant helps to maintain a healthy environment for fish and other aquatic life in Winnipeg's rivers. The odors produced through this decomposition are also contained within the treatment plant. Without treatment, the organic material in the wastewater would be released to the river, where it would decompose and reduce oxygen levels in the river to a point where they may become lethal to biota.


^ this is even more acute in Calgary, which has a much larger city on a small river, the flows are so low they are required to perform extensive sanitary sewage treatment to keep their pollution and oxygen levels within standards set by environment Canada!

We are native to the planet and mother nature did provide means of dealing with our waste - it is just that we have concentrated our populations so we generally have to pre-treat our sewage before release to the natural environment to prevent massive damage. The other issue is man-made chemicals in the effluent, and Victoria has decided to monitor the levels and institute a program of source reduction, which seems to be working.

Agreed the optics are bad, but our system only looks bad to the misinformed. This board has many intelligent people on it, what is so hard to understand? Treatment is treatment! We don't dump our sewage into our harbour because that would NOT work, it would cause destruction of the marine ecosystem as well as smell because of the low volumes of water and lack of current.

All that said, we will be building two large treatment plants in the future due to misguided, political interference. Truth is we will have to build them one day, I understand from some of the Engineers and scientists working with our sewage treatment that the natural ocean treatment is only effective up to a "hooked-up" population of 500-600k, depending on per capita dischargees.

[boden]

Victoria, BC, Plans to Stop Dumping Raw Sewage in the Ocean
Tuesday June 23, 2009

by Larry West

After decades of bad press, international outrage and government directives to clean up its act, the City of Victoria, capital of British Columbia, finally agreed to stop flushing raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which divides the western edges of Canada and the United States and flows between the Pacific Ocean and Puget Sound in Washington state.

Earlier this month [June 2009], regional leaders approved a $1.2 billion plan to build four treatment plants to process the 34 million gallons of sewage that the 300,000 residents of Victoria and six neighboring suburbs dump into the Strait every day.

Environmentalists are cheering the long-overdue move, pointing out that untreated sewage contains toxic chemicals, heavy metals and other contaminants that pose risks to public health and marine life, including the region’s killer whales. Victoria’s neighbors in nearby Vancouver, BC, and in Washington’s coastal communities on the Olympic Peninsula and among the San Juan Islands are also happy about the plan.

Critics of the plan argue that the money is needed elsewhere and that raw sewage pumped into the strait is so quickly diluted and dispersed that it doesn’t need to be treated. Some scientists agree that sewage flushed into the strait poses only minor risks to the marine environment and public health.

But here’s the thing: Why should a modern city that bills itself as a tourist destination and the gateway to Vancouver Island’s pristine forests, waterways and beaches continue to function like a Third World village with no access to sewage treatment technology and processes? And how sustainable would it be if every city and town in the world took the same approach?

Victoria’s decision to finally take responsibility for its human waste is probably a long-delayed response to the BC government’s 2006 order for the city to develop a sewage treatment plan—or maybe public pressure and the ongoing protests finally got to city officials. In addition, the decision may have been motivated in part by the Winter Olympics, which are scheduled to take place in Vancouver in 2010 and sure to bring millions of new tourists to the region.

One thing is certain: Victoria isn’t going to win any gold medals for environmental stewardship or civic responsibility.

[vid]

Meanwhile in the civilized interior, our sewage is cleaned so well we can drink it.

We haven't always, though. Thunder Bay dumped sewage into the lake as recently as 1975!

[-Harlington-]

Halifax harbour eats peoples souls

[Mike K.]

This article is not a scientific paper, nor is it a newspaper article. It is from an online blog, and she makes her valid point....loud and clear.

We'll need you to reference the link to the blog/article or we'll have to pull the whole post.

Please provide a reference. I thought the link you had provided to the NY Times was the reference to the piece.

[Wooster]

This head-in-the-sand approach isn’t limited to Victoria, and it is what prompted the authors of the National Sewage Report Card III produced in 2004 by the Sierra Legal Defence Fund (now Ecojustice Canada), to state baldly: “Our sewage problems are comprehensive and countrywide–from sea to stinking sea.”




Referenced Study

National Sewage Report Card:

http://www.ecojustice.ca/publications/reports/national-sewage-report-card-iii/attachment

2004:
Calgary A+
Edmonton A-
Halifax D
Montreal F
Toronto B-
Vancouver D
Winnipeg B-
Victoria Suspended (down from an F- in 1999)

[craneSpotter]

Referenced Study

National Sewage Report Card:

http://www.ecojustice.ca/publications/reports/national-sewage-report-card-iii/attachment

2004:
Calgary A+
Edmonton A-
Halifax D
Montreal F
Toronto B-
Vancouver D Thses
Winnipeg B-
Victoria Suspended (down from an F- in 1999)

Ecojustice articles/reports are more of an opinion rather than scientific fact ;)

[Wooster]

Ecojustice articles/reports are more of an opinion rather than scientific fact ;)

Fact: Victoria - untreated sewage discharge: 34.2 billion litres/year.

Their opinion: that kinda sucks.

;)

[craneSpotter]

Fact: Victoria - untreated sewage discharge: 34.2 billion litres/year.

Their opinion: that kinda sucks.

;)

yup - its a fact. 34.2 Billion litres is discharged for natural secondary treatment - about the best treatment in NA at present with the least impact on the environment.

whoops, now thats scientific fact not an opinion nor politics ;)



Presentation to the CRD Board, December 9, by Mr. John Bergbusch, Chairman of the Association for Responsible and Environmentally Sustainable Sewage Treatment (ARESST):

(Mr. John Bergbush is a previous Mayor of Colwood and member of the CRD Board)

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Board

Today representing the Board of ARESST, the Association for Responsible and Environmentally Sustainable Sewage Treatment, I am speaking on the three items in 5.1 in your agenda.

First I will speak to the report on the existing treatment system, 5.1.3. ARESST would like to congratulate the CRD on the outstanding results reported on the existing land based preliminary and ocean based secondary sewage treatment system. It is clear from the data that the ocean environment in the immediate vicinity of the outfalls is thriving and that the sewage is receiving the equivalent of secondary treatment within a short distance of the end of pipe.

This is truly an outstanding achievement. As Dr. Jack Littlepage, a biological oceanographer from the University of Victoria has said, “Victoria can boast of having the finest and most effective sewage treatment system in North America”. Nine of his colleagues at the UVIC IOS (Institute of Ocean Sciences), and UBC would agree. John Motherwell, a local design engineer specializing in sewage treatment and the designer of an award winning treatment plant at Port McNeil concurs, when he has said that none of the approved and functioning sewage treatment systems he has designed could match the effective performance of the existing treatment systems at McCauley and Clover Points. His evaluation of the effectiveness of Victoria’s existing sewage treatment system is and I quote “ This is a stellar performance. Any engineer who could produce the existing effluent limits at the edge of the initial dilution zone (IDZ) as reported by the CRD would be a hero.”


I blew that statement up from one of the experts on the subject - as some people have a way of neglecting facts and expert opinions that matter over their own pre-concieved notions and emotions :)

[RTA]

Sure, the ocean is clearly a great sewage treatment system right now.

Just like throwing all our garbage into a hole was a great idea at the time (or burning it for that matter).
And how CFCs were so wonderful for refrigeration and pressurizing spray cans at the time.
And how dumping industrial tailings into ponds was a good idea at the time.

Etc.

[zoomer]

/\ And how developing the oil sands seems like a good idea at this time...

[vanman]

The solution to pollution is dilution!

[craneSpotter]

Sure, the ocean is clearly a great sewage treatment system right now.


Yes, the experts (marine scientists and engineers) on the subject agree an have stated that there is a limit on the ability of the Jaun de Fuca strait to perform effective and environmentally sound secondary treatment to Victoria's sewage. The limit they commonly state is when the discharge of effluent increases to the per-capita equivalent of a regional population of 500,000 to 600,000. I believe our discharge to the strait has actually declined or at least flattened out over the past few years although the population has seen healthy growth - maybe because some new developments here have on-site sewage treatment.

Aa stated, Victoria is in the planning stages of two large land-based sewage treatment plants to replace the two deep-sea diffusers, probably by 2016-2020 or so.

[RTA]

/\ And how developing the oil sands seems like a good idea at this time...

I don't think anyone was under the illusion that developing the oil sands would not have a negative environmental impact. It's just that few people - particularly those benefiting from it - care.

[aastra]

Since only the city of Halifax isn't being treated properly right now I'd say just over a 100'000 citizens are dumping into the harbour.

So defnitely better than Victoria's 300'000+


There are actually two secondary treatment plants in Greater Victoria. One is in the northern suburbs (Saanich Peninsula) and serves about 30,000 people and one is in the western suburbs (Sooke) and serves about 10,000 people.

Politicians and the media often distort Victoria's size and shape for dramatic effect, depending on the issue. Sometimes they want to make Victoria look much bigger than it is and other times they want to make Victoria look much smaller than it is. So when they talk about sewage treatment, Victoria is the city of 400,000 that dumps raw sewage into the ocean. But when they talk about downtown policing, Victoria is the city of 80,000 that has umpteen times more liquor licenses than any other city in Canada.

I've said it before: if Victoria proper were to build a small treatment facility similar to the Saanich Peninsula facility then the PR issue would be pretty much quashed for good. The other core municipalities could go right on dumping and nobody would raise a fuss. It's a bit crazy because Saanich (population 110,000, the home to about 1 out of 3 Victorians) is the elephant in the room that nobody ever mentions by name. Saanich? Never heard of it. We're talking about Victoria.

Anyway, the Capital Regional District seems to be intent on using sewage treatment as the mega-boondoggle by which to achieve ultimate power.