The new North Shore wastewater treatment plant is getting a second chance at tertiary treatment. It’s by no means a done deal. But thanks to the efforts of some intrepid North Shore activists, it appears to be back in the pipeline for consideration.
Now sewage isn’t the sort of thing that inspires protests and placards. For most of us, thoughts on the topic end when we flush the toilet. Out of sight is out of mind for most people.
That’s too bad, because our aging Metro Vancouver sewage outfalls – which serve a massive portion of B.C.’s population – are surprisingly among the biggest contributors to pollution in the waters surrounding us, waters we share with marine life ranging from chinook salmon to southern resident killer whales.
An important difference between secondary treatment (what’s currently on the books for the new North Shore sewage plant) and tertiary treatment (the more advanced environmentally friendly option favoured by many) concerns the ability of those plants to remove a host of chemicals, including pharmaceuticals we consume. Those currently get passed on to species which certainly don’t have a prescription for them.
That carries with it a host of concerns, including the drugs’ potential impacts on the animals’ reproductive systems.
Given the massive efforts elsewhere to save endangered whales and salmon species, it seems unconscionable not to address this issue.
There are many unanswered questions remaining – chief among them costs for changing the project at this stage.
But we’ve certainly heard the senior levels of government talking a good talk on the environment. We’d say it behooves them to step up to the plate when it counts.
We like to boast about our pristine mountains and water in the Lower Mainland.
But the reality is a bit more dirty.
On the sewage front, we are laggards compared to many other places in the world.
It will cost us to do better. But in the end, you get what you pay for.
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