Although it was lost in the din of a presidential election, there was some good environmental news recently for the people of Washington. Officials in Victoria, British Columbia, finally have devised a plan to stop spewing untreated sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
While it might seem difficult to believe coming from a nation that typically is environmentally conscious and from a region with a strong environmental ethos, Victoria and surrounding cities have always sent their wastewater into the waters between the northwest corner of the United States and the southwest corner of Canada. That amounts to a metropolitan area of nearly 350,000 people dumping more than 30 million gallons of raw sewage daily into the water.
Not that this went unnoticed. Proposals for building a wastewater treatment plant have been on the board for decades. The provincial government ordered treatment about a decade ago, and the Canadian federal government four years ago adopted regulations requiring treatment by 2020, but progress has been slow.
In the kind of head-in-the-sand declaration that calls to mind similar environmental debates in this country, naysayers have insisted that the waste is diluted and carried off by the water, and that treatment is not necessary. This despite a report 10 years ago that found sewage was contaminating the seabed near the two pipes that dump the wastewater. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation recently carried a story in which it quoted a commercial diver as saying areas near the discharge pipes are full of sick kelp, polluted scallops, and layers of thick sediment.
The relevance for Washington residents is that what happens in Canada does not stay in Canada, and the same is true about other environmental concerns. Ocean waters are not stationary, eventually circulating among other nations. Victoria is only 25 miles from Port Angeles, separated by waters that are shared by Canada and the United States, and emptying your toilet onto your neighbor’s doorstep is not very neighborly. David MacNaughton, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, recently told the Editorial Board of the Seattle Times: “It’s indefensible; there’s no excuse for it. It’ll get fixed sooner rather than later.”
Sooner would be better, but for now, Washington residents can take comfort in the fact the issue is being addressed by our neighbors to the north. The Seattle Times reported that funding from Canada’s federal government will cover about one-third of the $765 million treatment plan, which includes a waterfront plant and a separate bio-solids treatment facility. Local and regional governments, along with Victoria-area households, will pick up the remainder of the cost.
The issue has festered for decades, and the apparent solution comes after much cajoling from Washington officials. As early as 1993, state leaders called for a tourism boycott of Victoria in an attempt to force the issue; since then, Gov. Jay Inslee and various congressional representatives also have tried to force the hand of the British Columbia provincial government. But until now, Canadian officials have opted to engage in actions more suited to Third World countries.
Given the fact that environmental degradation and health concerns are shared by both British Columbia and Washington, the decision to finally treat wastewater in Victoria is a most welcome advancement.
