Despite the outstanding questions about measurable impacts and cost/benefit ratios, this constitutes progress for the marine environment of the SRKWs. Does anyone have pointers to the independent reports mentioned in this article?
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Victoria to stop sending untreated sewage to sea
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Regional politicians last week approved a $1.2 billion plan to build four treatment plants to handle about 34 million gallons of raw sewage that Victoria and six suburbs pump into the Strait of Juan de Fuca each day. The cities are home to about 300,000 people. |
Environmentalists say untreated sewage contains toxic chemicals, heavy metals and other contaminants that pollute waters and harm aquatic life. It’s also one of many sources contaminating the region’s killer whales, they say. |
In 2006, the British Columbia government ordered the Victoria area to develop a sewage treatment plan. |
| four plants in Esquimalt, Saanich East, the West Shore and Clover Point, Victoria. The plants could be online by 2016. |
| The province also released a report that found contamination of the seabed around sewer outfalls. |
| The wastewater is pumped out of two outfalls that run about 213 feet deep and about a mile into the strait. |
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