Official Says Strait Cleans Victoria’s Raw Sewage Comments Indicate Waste Treatment Plant Won’t Be Built

No treatment is necessary for the millions of gallons of raw sewage that a British Columbia city dumps daily into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a senior Canadian minister says.

The strait does such a good job of flushing out Victoria’s effluence that treatment would be a waste of money, David Anderson, Canada’s minister of fisheries and a member of parliament for Victoria, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The strait “does naturally what we would have to spend a great deal of money to do,” Anderson said, so Victoria will continue its practice of discharging waste - estimated at 15 million gallons a day - into the international waterway.

On the U.S. side of the strait, Port Angeles has spent more than $31 million on a secondary sewage treatment system which kills bacteria and removes solids and nutrients. Treatment costs at Port Townsend, to the east, are estimated at $10 million.

The Canadian government has invested $230 million in building a treatment plant on the lower Fraser River for much of Vancouver’s sewage.

But despite promises made in the early 1990s, no action has been taken to treat Victoria’s wastes.

Americans familiar with the issue were disappointed with Anderson’s remarks.

“I would hope members of parliament from Vancouver Island would make this a priority to clean up the mess,” said state Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon. “Having a cleanup policy would be in their best interests.”

Victoria’s dumping practice is “something you would expect from a Third World country,” said Mike Sato of People for Puget Sound, a local environmental group.

“It is just bad for the quality of life, bad for the environment, bad for the people” in Victoria, Sato said.

Canadian engineers and scientists have found no danger to the public or sea life, Anderson said.

“The best wind surfing we have in Victoria is off Dallas Road, right between (two sewage outfall pipes),” he said. “They don’t glow as they walk down Government Street. They don’t drop dead.”

The Capitol Regional District, which manages waste discharge, recently authorized a study on how to improve the screening of sewage discharged at Victoria’s two outfalls. The district’s board discussed whether the provincial government would accept improved screening of sewage as a form of primary treatment.

In the early 1990s, there was a furor over the sewage. The Washington State Trial Lawyers Association canceled a convention in Victoria and Seattle-area yacht owners staged a boycott of an annual race.

But the issue subsided in 1993 when then-Premier Mike Harcourt promised to put the capital of “Beautiful British Columbia” on a schedule to clean up its wastes.

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