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VANCOUVER, BC – Lower Mainland environmental groups have been blowing the whistle for years on Metro Vancouver’s Iona Wastewater Treatment Plant in Richmond because it only applies primary treatment before dumping roughly 200 billion litres of effluent annually into the Fraser River’s mouth and Georgia Strait.
They also say Iona routinely exceeds federal Fisheries Act toxicity discharge limits but that Ottawa simply turns a blind eye, so Metro has never been charged.
But now, new waste-water regulations proposed by Ottawa for the Fisheries Act will decriminalize currently illegal effluent discharges and give numerous Canadian municipalities many more years before having to clean up their act.
“It’s outrageous that the Canadian government allows municipalities like Metro Vancouver to continue violating the Fisheries Act with impunity,” says Doug Chapman, spokesman for the non-profit group Fraser Riverkeeper. “Millions of salmon must live in these contaminated waters and now Canada is about to legalize the environmental crimes. This is partly why Fraser River sockeye salmon are disappearing.”
The 47-year-old plant is one of five operated by Metro Vancouver and serves approximately 600,000 people in Vancouver, the University Endowment Lands and parts of Burnaby and Richmond.
Iona and the much smaller Lions Gate plant on the North Shore have only primary treatment technologies while the Annacis Island, Lulu Island and Northwest Langley plant employ secondary treatment.
Just under half the 435-million litres of waste water Metro handles annually receives secondary treatment.
“Primary treatment is hardly any treatment at all,” says Chapman. “We really are in the dark ages here in B.C. There’s no sewage treatment at all in Victoria, for example.”
Consequently, Fraser Riverkeeper, along with Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and Ottawa Riverkeeper, recently submitted a detailed brief to Environment Canada on the new regulations. Its thrust was simply this: “Canada must improve waste-water systems regulations without decriminalizing sewage pollution.”
But the coalition, along with others, including the Vancouver-based David Suzuki Foundation, have also filed a formal complaint against Ottawa with the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation. It says Iona has leaked toxic sewage at least 11 times since 2007.
The commission was formed in 1994 as a side deal to the North American Free Trade Agreement and it enforces environmental law in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Metro Vancouver, meanwhile, admits it sometimes exceeds Fisheries Act toxicity lab tests, but claims other tests simulating actual water conditions in the area show acceptable levels of oxygen for fish protection.
Albert van Roodselaar, manager of Metro’s utility analysis and environmental management, says the proposed regulations reflect a new federal strategy for waste-water management.
“The idea is to develop this strategy in a reasonable and scheduled fashion without having people out of compliance while doing it,” he says.
Under the scheme, Lions Gate will have 10 years in which to upgrade to secondary treatment while Iona will have 20 years to install the same technology level.
“But we’re taking major dollars here,” van Roodselaar warns.
Estimates for the Iona upgrade are $1 billion, while Lions Gate would cost $500 million.
Yes, it’s all about money, folks.