Two letters published in the Victoria Times Colonist May 21st 2010
Sewage treatment is a waste of money
Almost every day there is an editorial or letter bemoaning the ongoing funding cuts by the provincial government and the impacts they will have on the disadvantaged, the ill and the less fortunate.
And yet Victoria continues to stumble toward a financial Armageddon by spending a billion dollars on a land-based sewage treatment system that is not only unnecessary but that will create new and expensive problems (construction and operating costs, disposal of sludge, etc.).
The Capital Regional District and the province seem determined to ignore the informed science-based opinions of marine engineers, oceanographers and public-health officials who have all stated repeatedly that the current screened, deep outfall dispersion of our sewage into the fast-flowing currents of Juan de Fuca Strait is an effective and environmentally benign way for us to dispose of our natural bodily wastes.
Despite what the proponents of this harebrained, politically correct scheme say, the fact remains that our current sewage treatment system works well by all public health and engineering standards. To squander our hard-earned tax dollars on this project when so many legitimate and needed public services are being systematically and mercilessly cut back is senseless and irresponsible.
To learn more about this whole issue, please visit rstv.ca or aresst.org.
Graydon Gibson
Victoria
Sewage outfalls far off shore
I wish to correct the May 19 report on the sewage outfalls. The outfall at Clover Point is 1.1 kilometres offshore and at the end of it is a 196-metre diffuser, 60 metres below the surface of the ocean.
The outfall at Macaulay Point is 1.7 kilometres offshore and at the end of it is a 135-metre diffuser, 65 metres below the surface of the ocean.
It is through these two engineer-designed outfalls that an average flow of 103,400 cubic metres of liquid waste (which is 99.97 per cent water) is discharged each day, after passing through six-millimetre screens.
The effluent is then treated naturally by the ocean waters.
Dr. Shaun Peck
Victoria