A private citizen working for an environmental group has succeeded in getting a charge laid against the GVRD and province of BC. Doug Chapman says the two are consciously violating the federal Fisheries Act.
Chapman calls himself an environmental investigator. He said he spent six months gathering evidence that the sewage coming out of the Iona sewage treatment plant in Richmond is suffocating fish in the Fraser River and Strait of Georgia. He said the sewage can kill fish because it sucks oxygen from the water.
He believes the province shares responsibility for the issue with the GVRD. He said, “The province has known for years that the effluent from Iona is acutely toxic to fish, and still gave them permission to keep on doing it until the year 2020.”
Chapman said he and the other environmentalists involved have taken this legal step to push the GVRD into putting secondary sewage treatment at this plant much more quickly. The GVRD said it’s aware of the charge but won’t comment because the case is before the courts.