Victoria Cleans Up

From Woman At Mile Zero:

Today we had confirmation of a new sewage treatment plant location for Victoria. It’s probably not a moment too soon either because we continue to receive universal, world-wide condemnation for dumping raw sewage into the ocean. The plant will be built in the Haro Woods at Arbutus and Finnerty only about a block from where I used to live at the University of Victoria.


They've been arguing about building this plant since I lived there in the mid-1980s. You used to hear stories of people living by the water who would come down with jaundice and blame it on bits of human waste that would get blown ashore from the head of the sewage pipe.

About time.

The Shame Of Victoria, British Columbia

From the Vancouver Province this morning:

VICTORIA -- Federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion said Victoria can be an example of responsible water and waste management when the 2010 Olympics put B.C. in the international spotlight.

Victoria B.C., the jewel of the Canadian West Coast (though its been getting a bit seedy in the past couple of years), treats the Strait of Juan de Fuca as its own municipal toilet, pumping raw sewage into the ocean. They've been doing it for decades, and every few years the fact makes news and people are briefly appalled. Between times, residents have consistently rejected any taxation measures to pay for a treatment plant.

I remember an old college buddy who lived right on the shores of Oak Bay coming down with jaundice; the doctors told him it was almost certainly due to his exposure to human feces blown inland from the area around the sewage pipe.

So, in this case, when the yankees across the strait in places like Port Townsend, Sequim, and Port Angeles accuse Canadians of being smug with respect to environmental issues, they have a point.