Stiawa Noitulover
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GVRD's Environmental Disgrace:
Lions Gate & Iona Primary Sewage Plants
The GVRD operates 7 sewage treatment plants - 5 secondary & 2 primary. The problem surrounds the two primary facilities which are pumping 780 MILLION LITRES of contaminated sewage every day into Burrard Inlet & the Georgia Strait from the Lions Gate Sewage Plant in North Vancouver & the Iona Sewage Treatment Plant in Richmond.
Everything that goes down a sewer, drain or toilet in Richmond or the North Shore, whether residential, commercial or industrial, ends up at either primary sewage facility. After solids are screened out, effluent laced with toxic containments including heavy metals, chemicals and deadly PCBs is pumped into our surrounding waters. The North Shore's effluent – 160 million litres every day - goes directly into Burrard Inlet. Richmond's effluent is piped 7.5km into the Georgia Strait - 620 million litres every day.
The more I researched this issue, the more unbelievable the story became. The Lions Gate & Iona Sewage Plants make the GVRD the #1 polluter of the Georgia Strait and they don’t advertise that on their web site. Most people don’t know what’s going on…it’s largely a case of out-of-sight…out-of-mind.
As a candidate in the forthcoming election, I hope you'll take the time to review this situation, which in this day of environmental awareness is truly astonishing.
Thank you and good luck on the campaign trail.
Dave Sadler
Polluted Truth – GVRD’s Toxic Secret Revealed
The Facts
- The GVRD’s Lion’s Gate and Iona Primary Sewage Plants pump on average 820 million litres of primary treated sewage into Burrard Inlet & Georgia Strait every day.
- Lions Gate dumps 160 million litres per day and Iona 620 million litres per day – 290 Billion litres/year.
- Lions Gate sewage is released under Lions Gate Bridge and is flushed into Burrard Inlet and English Bay while Iona sewage is pumped 7.5km out into the Strait of Georgia.
- The sewage is laced with contaminants including heavy metals and a host of toxic environmentally persistent organic chemicals, including PCBs which contravene national and international pollution standards.
Region’s population will double in 30 years – double the sewage – double the pollution.
Environmental Disaster
Toxic substances find their way into the food chain & poison marine mammals. Fishery & Oceans tests have found killer whales & seals swimming in the Georgia Strait are more contaminated than the Belugas in the St.Lawrence River. Once common species are now depleted – rockfish, lingcod (90% in 50 years), halibut and abalone (virtually disappeared).
Deadly PCBs - Polychlorinated Biphenyls
Data gathered by the GVRD shows that roughly 8.5 grams/day of PCB’s are discharged to the marine environment through Iona and 1.7 grams/day through Lions Gate. Based on Provincial water quality standards for the protection of aquatic life, ten grams of PCBs would render 10 Billion litres of water to be unsuitable for fish and wildlife. Sierra Legal calculated that this was enough water to fill tanker trucks lined up, bumper to bumper, from Vancouver to St.John’s Newfoundland and back again – every day.
Environment Canada finds GVRD Testing Suspect
In 2002 Environment Canada found the GVRD self-administered sewage effluent toxicity test results had a “pass” consistency that was both “amazing” & “super-human” and not up to Federal standards. Environment Canada ran their own tests and found the sewage to be “acutely lethal to fish” in violation to anti-pollution statutes in the federal Fisheries Act.
Violation of Fishery Act
Lions Gate and Iona sewage regularly kills fish in world-class standard lab tests conducted at the Fisheries & Oceans pollution monitoring facility in North Vancouver. However even though the effluent has repeatedly been shown to be toxic to fish, Environment Canada has never charged the GVRD for discharging their sewage in the manner that it does. The Fisheries Act carries fines of up to $1 million per day and jail time. This should be a good deterrent to stop anyone from polluting.
Violation of International Law
Canada signed and ratified the UN Stockholm Treaty, a global agreement to eliminate POP’s (persistent organic pollutants) from our environment. We’re violating United States EPA standards with PCBs polluting 1200% over their legal limits.
Industrial World Standards
The European Union (EU) requires all member states to have Secondary Treatment by 2006 and Tertiary Treatment by 2010. Countries like Australia & Germany already have tertiary in place as well as Whistler BC.
Sweden extracts biogas (methane gas) from sewage to fuel transit vehicles which saves saving millions of dollars in annual fuel costs as well as reducing air pollution.
The GVRD’s Annacis Island Secondary Sewage Plant already produces biogas which it uses to power the plants generators.
GVRD “Solution to Pollution is Dilution”
The GVRD regularly claims that their sewage has no impact on the environment and denies Lions Gate and Iona are a source of pollution. Yet the GVRD’s own tests reveal that the sewage waste is toxic.
Current Situation
The Provincial Government has approved a Liquid Waste Management Plan (LWMP) for the GVRD. As such the GVRD has been exempted from pollution reduction policies being imposed on every other BC municipality with the exception of Victoria & Prince Rupert, both of which discharge their sewage raw.
Consequently the GVRD believes they are legally allowed to pollute at the current levels. As well, under the LWMP, the GVRD will not have to upgrade Lions Gate for 25 years and Iona for 15 years – and that is not even cast in stone. In addition, 42 combined storm water/sewage pipes dump untreated human waste into Burrard Inlet, False Creek and the Fraser River in heavy rains. Under the LWMP, this pollution will not be addressed for at least another 25 years.
Primary vs. Secondary Treatment
Primary treatment uses settling ponds to screen out the heavier solids. The liquid portion of the sewage and remaining finer suspended solids are then discharged to the environment. The concentrations of toxic chemicals in the sewage are reduced by 15-25%. Biological oxygen demand is reduced 25-50%.
Secondary treatment reduces concentrations of most toxic metals and persistent organic chemical and biological oxygen demand by 90%, fecal coliform by 99%, biological oxygen demand 90% and chemicals like PCBs by 99%.
In Canada, only Vancouver, Victoria & Montreal are not actively working towards Secondary upgrades at their major treatment facilities.
The preferred treatment option for any city is “Tertiary” which removes all contaminants and becomes recycled clean water.
Cost
The cost to upgrade Lions Gate and Iona from Primary to Secondary Sewage Treatment plants is $500million or $250/person. The GVRD says we can’t afford it – yet everywhere else can. Using Federal & Provincial infrastructure development programs, the cost can be reduced by 66%. Upgrading to tertiary is undoubtedly the best solution but would require a great deal of political will.
Public Support
In 1999 an unreleased GVRD poll found 80% of Vancouverites want the sewage treatment upgraded, even if it means paying higher taxes. In June 2001 a SPEC survey by Viewpoints Research found 70% of Lower Mainland households would be willing to pay $150 per year to stop the pollution.
Canadian Law
Pollution is a crime under the Fishery Act and carries fines of up to $1 Million/Day and quite possibly jail time. However the Feds are reticent to charge Municipalities as they are responsible to the Provincial Government.
In 2001, Sierra Legal Defence Fund presented a well researched legal case to David Anderson when he was
federal Minister of the Environment asking him to intervene, but the Ministry refused to act.
Solution is at the Local Municipal Level
Litigation through the Courts would take years. Better, our Municipal Councils should tell the GVRD Bureaucrats that this practice is totally unacceptable. We must amend the LWMP and stop dumping untreated, or primary sewage into our surrounding waters. Federal/Provincial cost-sharing infrastructure programs would reduce cost by 66%, but the GVRD must take the lead and submit a proposal.
For more information please contact:
SPEC www.spec.bc.ca
Sierra Legal Defence Fund www.sierralegal.org
Georgia Strait Alliance www.georgiastrait.org
Victoria Sewage Alliance www.victoriasewagealliance.org
T.Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation www.bucksuzuki.org
Additional Environmental Organizations are linked to the T.Buck Suzuki web site
Dave Sadler, Mayoralty Candidate, District of North Vancouver
davesadler@telus.net Home (604) 929-2090 Work (604) 874-1800 |
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