Actually Vancouver and the lower mainland have excellent primary and secondary treatment . Victoria has the sewage problem .
Oh dear me - there are NEWS REPORTS that suggest the lower mainland has SOMETHING OTHER
than an excellent sewage treatment system! Reports of the excellent sewage treatment ARE FAKE NEWS!
Here is an article that makes a mockery of claims that Vancouver has an “excellent sewage treatment system”! And exposes the B.C. hypocrisy about claims they value their allegedly “pristine” oceanfront! The pair of reports PROVE that Vancouver is setting Cdn RECORDS for sewage dumping! With some comments of my own in brackets):
Sewage problems must be fixed if Vancouver wants to be a global role model, say advocates
By Wanyee Li, and Ainslie Cruickshank, StarMetro Vancouver
Published Fri., April 13, 2018
VANCOUVER—Water advocates say Vancouver’s goal of being the world’s “greenest city” by 2020 is admirable but impossible without cleaning up its act when it comes to dumping untreated sewage into its waterways.
Some pipes in Vancouver — as in other Canadian cities — carry both raw sewage and rainwater runoff to treatment plants. But during heavy rains, these pipes end up carrying more waste water than the plant can handle.
(In other words hypocrite Vancouver environmentalists are pinching pennies and letting RAW SEWAGE overflow from antiquated sewage treatment plants and sadly - it RAINS FREQUENTLY in the city and in coastal B.C. generally!)
That triggers overflow points where both sewage and rainwater pour directly into rivers, lakes, or the ocean.
More than 45 million cubic metres of untreated sewage flowed into B.C. waters in 2016, according to Environment Canada data obtained by StarMetro.
More than half of that entered waterways around the Lower Mainland — the Burrard Inlet, False Creek, and the Fraser River — according to a Metro Vancouver report.
It’s a far cry from where Vancouver needs to be if it wants to be a leader in water quality, said Lauren Hornor, a Fraser Riverkeeper board member and a regional representative for Swim Drink Fish, a water-quality advocacy group.
(And all that sewage dumping makes a mockery of LIE-berals whining about oil tankers on their NOT SO pristine west coast!)
“We really should be a model for the entire world, but we’re just not there yet,” she said.
(No - and Vancouver IS NOT even a model for Canada as ONE THIRD of all the sewage overflow in Canada occurs in southern B.C!)
The City of Vancouver has announced its goal is to separate its sewer and stormwater systems by 2050. But in the meantime, untreated waste water is still pouring into its waterways.
(Oh great - ANOTHER THIRTY YEARS of planned sewage dumping - with that plan NOW TOAST courtesy of Wuhan Virus DEBT LOADS! The latest economic predictions suggest Canada will see a HUGE WAVE of personal and biz bankruptcies in the next few years as Wuhan fallout endures with resulting limits on govt ability to fix anything!)
Raw sewage dumped in Metro Vancouver waters saw five-year high in 2017
And heavy precipitation, which causes the combined sewer pipes to overflow, will likely occur more often in the coming decades, according to Nathan Gillett, manager of Environment Canada’s centre for climate modelling and analysis.
In Vancouver, average annual rainfall is forecast to rise between 10 to 20 per cent by the end of the century; more intense rainstorms are also expected, he said.
(So LIE-berals have - as I have previously said - declared we are in a “Climate Emergency” but they have done NOTHING to alleviate the problem - EXCEPT to impose their carbon tax SCAM to grab enough gravy so they and their HOG ALLIES can continue their carbon rich lifestyle while screwing the rest of us!)
The risks of more frequent sewer overflows were outlined in a 2008 report that examined the vulnerability of the Vancouver-area sewage system.
Vancouver has so far separated about 55 per cent of its combined pipes, said the city’s water and sewage infrastructure director Daniel Roberge.
The city separated sewage and storm pipes in the downtown area 20 years ago, he said, and it’s continuing work to separate pipes leading to the Burrard Inlet, False Creek, and the Fraser River.
(Yes- good idea to clean up SOME of the sewage in areas most likely to be visited by tourists - too bad about neglected less popular dumping spots!)
But E. coli levels in some of Vancouverites’ favourite water-sport destinations do exceed Health Canada thresholds at times, especially during the summer months when people are more likely to be swimming.
(Oh dear - heavy ocean currents are NOT flushing away B..C. crap fast enough to suit locals? Maybe the sewer outfalls should be set farther offshore - it is the CHEAP and preferred LIE-beral solution is it not? Cheap solutions are best for LIE-berals as it ensures they have LOTS of gravy to buy HOG voter support!)
Vancouver Coastal Health currently releases data on E. coli levels in busy waterways like False Creek, Trout Lake, and the city’s beaches.
But water advocates like Hornor have been calling on cities to monitor combined sewer overflows in real-time so that people know when to avoid swimming in certain areas ahead of time.
Roberge confirmed Vancouver is taking steps to install sensors inside the city’s pipes to create a sewage-monitoring system.
(Oh yes - typical penny wise and pound foolish - install cheap monitors and keep LOTS of HOGS happily employed by taking water samples - but DO NOTHING about over flowing sewers that are the real problem!)
“This year, we’re going to be choosing some locations, some technology, and we’re going to start validating data on combined sewer overflow,” he said. “In 2019, the plan is to look at how best to provide this information to the public.”
(Everybody KNOWS there is crap in the water - so DO SOMETHING about the crap! Toronto of course has a similar problem and COULD have solved the sewer overflow problem 30 years ago at a cost of about $1 billion dollars - but Silly Hall blew that on Ataratiri - the housing plan that WENT BUST after it was discovered that the eastern Toronto port lands are SO POLLUTED with heavy metals and such that it is NOT SAFE TO INHABIT - Ataratiri was poisoned and died and the sewers continue to overflow!)
In the meantime, the city said it’s trying to reduce rainwater flowing into the sewer system by 90 per cent, which would help lower the number of combined sewer overflow events.
(Yes - Toronto spent another roughly $1 billion dollars to build holding ponds and a HUGE underground tank to temporarily hold storm run off! Silly Hall had been receiving SO MANY LAW SUITS from homes and biz that were getting flooded by raw sewage from the ANTIQUATED drainage system that building holding tanks was the CHEAPEST and QUICKEST SOLUTION! Now waste water is held for a few days and released more slowly - but that sewage overflow IS STILL being dumped - it just isnt ending up in peoples basements any more!)
“We are trying to divert that water and prevent it from going into the pipes in the first place,” said Melina Scholefield, head of the city’s green infrastructure program.
Through that initiative, city workers install rain gardens, permeable sidewalks, and green roofs to collect and absorb as much rainwater as possible before it has a chance of flowing into storm drains. The vegetation and soil remove pollutants from the water, she explained.
(The BIG issue is that the drainage system was set up for a MUCH SMALLER city - with much less pavement and fewer roofs! All that new pavement accelerates water runoff since it is blocked from sinking into fields and forests that are gone!
City planners know this but left us to GET FLOODED with CRAP anyway!)
City staff are also building basins underneath sidewalks – like one at Burrard and Cornwall – that collect rainwater and direct it to the roots of trees that line the sidewalk above.
(On the PLUS SIDE. Vancouver has decided to begin construction of a new sewage treatment plant near the Lion Gate Bridge! But of course it will be several YEARS before it actually comes online! Meanwhile MOST of B.C. continues to dump sewage AT SEA on its “pristine coast”!)
(IN related news, Danielle Smith of Global News supplies this information in a column posted April 12, 2018, titled) : Exposing B.C.’s environmental hypocrisy
All right British Columbians. I have had it up to my eyeballs with your willful blindness to environmental issues in your own province.
So, as of now, I am a charter member of the Facebook Page “Save BC’s Environment” – the purpose of which is to highlight the many real and pressing environmental issues that your political leaders refuse to take action on.
Let’s start with Thursday’s investigative report from Star Metro which found that British Columbia is the nation’s worst offender when it comes to allowing untreated sewage to enter Canadian rivers and oceans.
Of the 120 million cubic metres per year in Canada as a whole, British Columbia is responsible for nearly one-third of the problem. That’s right.
(Isnt that nice - B.C. is setting CANADIAN RECORDS for sewage dumping!)
That’s 45 billion litres of sewage filled with toxins, heavy metals, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, bacteria and pathogens being dumped into clean water. That’s about 1,900 tankers worth– if you care to do the math on it.
It doesn’t include the deliberate dumping of raw sewage by places such as Victoria. This is because of comingled storm sewer and sewer systems getting overwhelmed because of too much rain and runoff.
In Calgary, the equivalent measure is zero. That’s because Calgary made the decision to separate its two systems back in the 1960s. This is something British Columbia doesn’t intend to complete until 2050.
(Isnt that IRONIC - the Alberta “rednecks” treat their sewage more carefully than crunchy granola B.C. LIE-berals! Oh well - Wuhan Virus is going to hit is so hard we wont have a pot to pee in anyway - thanks to LIE-beral carelessness with Wuhan Pestilence carrying travellers!)
