- SEE STOPABADPLAN CALENDAR FOR UPCOMING ARESST ACTIONS!
LETTERS:
- CRD CHAIR'S COMMENTS ON SEWAGE RILE READER
- SENIORS CARE HOW POLICIES WILL AFFECT THE FUTURE
- WE SHOULD ERR ON SIDE OF PRUDENCE
- SENIORS CARE HOW POLICIES WILL AFFECT THE FUTURE
- WE SHOULD ERR ON SIDE OF PRUDENCE
- OCEAN CONTAMINANTS SPREAD FAR AND WIDE
- SCIENTISTS' EXPERTISE BEING IGNORED IN SEWAGE DEBATE
- SEWAGE TREATMENT IS A WASTE
- CRD SHOULD NOT SPEND ON SEWAGE-PROJECT ADS
- MR. FLOATIE NOT FOCUS OF MEETING
- NO SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR SEWAGE PLANT
- RECYCLE, CONSERVE SEWAGE WATER
CRD-RELATED SEWAGE NEWS:
- CFAX DEVOTES HOUR TO SEWAGE TREATMENT ISSUE
- HERE'S A MASCOT WE DON'T NEED
- BYELECTION CAUGHT UP IN SEWAGE DISPUTE
- IDEOLOGY TRUMPING SCIENCE IN SEWAGE PLAN: TRUDEAU
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ARESST ACTION:
PHOTOS AND VIDEO LINK OF 21 NOV OAK BAY SEWAGE TOWN HALL
ARESST: Meeting went well - great participation, lots of ARESSTers showed up, good arguments.
VIDEO LINK: PRESENTATIONS START AT 17:50 MINUTE MARK:
Audience was energized!
Murray Langdon moderator, 3 pro-marine treatment on left (Derman, Stanwick, Littlepage and 3 anti-marine treatment Isitt, Graham, Ishiguro.
ARESST's STOPABADPLAN light-show on school wall was entertaining!
Meeting went well - great participation, lots of ARESSTers showed up, good arguments made and rebutted.Thanks to ARESST campaign organizer Richard and others active in promoting event to ARESST members and campaigners. Hopefully, the Town Hall brought important information to those who hadn't been involved before and will help initiate new actions in our campaign.
----------------------------------------
SEE STOPABADPLAN CALENDAR FOR UPCOMING ARESST ACTIONS!
Click here to go to ARESST Action calendar
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LETTERS:
CRD CHAIR'S COMMENTS ON SEWAGE RILE READER
Victoria News
20, 2012 11:00 AM
If anyone wanted to see how much thought has been applied to the decision to proceed with land-based sewage treatment, the comments of Capital Regional District chair Geoff Young, must surely win the gold medal for utter nonsense.
Young stated after last week’s board meeting, “The idea we are going to be allowed to continue to dump this stuff into the ocean and assume it does no harm, because we can’t detect the harm, is something that is not going to appeal to (provincial and federal) regulators … When we talk about delay, we have to be concerned about the fact they’re offering us two-thirds of the cost.”
Think about this for several seconds:
1) Young admits there is no evidence that harm is being done by the current screening system;
2) it doesn’t matter that dozens of marine scientists and studies can’t detect any harm, Young and the regulators know better;
3) he forgets that the folks paying the other two-thirds of the cost are us as taxpayers, not some wealthy benefactor; and
4) he implies that sewage treatment won’t improve the problem one iota, since he has confirmed there is no evidence that a problem actually exists.
Shouldn’t we now retire some of our brilliant leaders who love nothing better than creating monuments at our expense?
Hopefully, this latest turn of events will at least force our leaders to commission a proper study to determine what benefits, if any, we will get for the biggest expenditure of tax funds in Victoria’s history.
Better yet, let’s elect people who will do their homework and stand up for our best interests.
Bob Wheaton
Saanich
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SENIORS CARE HOW POLICIES WILL AFFECT THE FUTURE
Ken Williams
Times Colonist
November 20, 2012
Re: "Sewage-plant opposition reeks of self-interest," Nov. 17.
I am a senior citizen living in Victoria and I do my best to follow issues of importance to the community. The letter-writer's assumption that seniors opposed to the project are motivated by self-interest is neither true nor fair.
I can assure the writer that seniors can and do think about how policies of candidates might affect their grandchildren and even their great-grandchildren.
Ken Williams
Victoria
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WE SHOULD ERR ON SIDE OF PRUDENCE
Timothy B. Johnson
Times Colonist
November 20, 2012
Re: "Sewage treatment foes out in force," Nov. 15.
Dr. Shaun Peck states there is "no measurable public health risk" to discharging raw sewage into the marine environment. This seems rather unremarkable since the public does not typically inhabit sewer-discharge zones. But ill effects on human health are only one consideration among many. What about effects on marine species or on the marine ecosystem as a whole?
Dr. Peter Chapman has posited that "discharges are not having major environmental impacts." This blanket statement is based on narrow-scope observations and measurements of limited parameters within limited areas near the present outfalls, in spite of the fact that studies have documented deleterious impacts on marine life and the presence of contaminated sediments in the discharge zones.
No controlled study has addressed the long-term impacts of raw sewage discharge on the whole Salish Sea ecosystem. The effects of raw sewage discharge should be viewed in conjunction with other environmental stresses such as ocean acidification, global warming, oxygen depletion and fisheries collapse.
In the absence of succinct, conclusive answers we should err on the side of prudence. Dumping 129 million litres of raw sewage per day into Juan de Fuca Strait is probably a bad thing. The local marine ecosystem did not evolve with this additional input of nutrients, pathogens, metals and biotropic chemicals. Yes, the tidal current carries it away, except during the four slack tides each day and the extended slack periods each lunar cycle when it inconveniently boils to the surface.
It is time to take responsibility for our impact on the marine environment.
Timothy B. Johnson
Victoria
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OCEAN CONTAMINANTS SPREAD FAR AND WIDE
David Shillington
Times Colonist
November 20, 2012
Re: "Time to get on with sewage plant," Nov. 16.
I applaud the letter saying we should get on with secondary treatment of our sewage effluent.
I wonder how many of the group protesters have taken the trouble to attend any of the Capital Regional District-sponsored public meetings to debate the issue. How many of them took in Alexandra Morton's meeting some time ago attended by many hundreds of people in Victoria, discussing the various aspects of water contamination, among other topics. She is acknowledged by many to be the premier authority on everything to do with water.
I notice that David Anderson is quoted as being opposed to the CRD's treatment plan, rightly saying that there are many other problems demanding government attention. I respectfully suggest, however, that his views on sewage treatment may reflect what was his opinion was in his time but have little to do with the present realities.
As is well known, ocean currents can take contaminants anywhere in the world, so the net effect is cumulative. I believe that the CRD studies have been exhaustive and we should get on with the job. The longer we leave it, the more expensive it is likely to become.
David Shillington
Victoria
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SCIENTISTS' EXPERTISE BEING IGNORED IN SEWAGE DEBATE
Victoria News
November 20, 2012 4PM
I am bewildered that the research and knowledge of the brightest of our health, environmental and marine scientists is being ignored by the wastewater treatment planning committee.
I am sure Mr. Floatie is giggling hysterically somewhere, having suckered in so many naive politicians. Is it any wonder that Canada has a $26-billion deficit financing useless projects like this?
Ted Cameron
Colwood
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SEWAGE TREATMENT IS A WASTE
Saanich News
November 20, 2012
If anyone wanted to see how much thought has been applied to the decision to proceed with land-based sewage treatment, the comments of our CRD chair, Geoff Young, must surely win the gold medal for utter nonsense.
Young says, “The idea we are going to be allowed to continue to dump this stuff into the ocean and assume it does no harm, because we can’t detect the harm, is something that is not going to appeal to regulators … when we talk about delay we have to be concerned about the fact they’re offering us two-thirds of the cost.”
Think about this for several seconds: Young admits there is no evidence that harm is being done by the current screening system; it doesn’t matter that dozens of marine scientists and studies can’t detect any harm. Young and the regulators know better. He forgets that the folks who are offering to pay the other two-thirds of the cost also happen to be taxpayers, not some wealthy benefactor. He also clearly admits there is no evidence that this billion-dollar boondoggle will improve the problem one iota, as he has already confirmed there is no evidence that one actually exists.
Shouldn’t we retire some of our brilliant leaders who love nothing better than creating monuments at our expense?
Hopefully, this latest turn of events will at least force our leaders to commission a proper study to determine what benefits, if any, we will get for the biggest expenditure of tax funds in Victoria’s history.
Better yet, let’s elect people who will do their homework and stand up for our interests.
Bob Wheaton
Saanich
------------------------------
CRD SHOULD NOT SPEND ON SEWAGE-PROJECT ADS
Carole Witter
Times Colonist
November 22, 2012
Re: "Sewage ads axed after complaints," Nov. 6.
That the Capital Regional District has axed its pro-treatment sewage ads after complaints of being inappropriate during a byelection is good news.
That it has an advertising budget of $100,000 allocated to sewage treatment alone is shocking news. That it will use that money to promote a plan consistently refuted by legitimate science (you won't hear about that in the promotional ads) is deceptive and misleading.
Advertising has the potential to persuade people to accept what they might otherwise oppose. All critical information should be included in the ads.
We are paying for this advertising. We will be on the hook to pay for this plan. We have a right to know.
Carole Witter
Esquimalt
----------------------
MR. FLOATIE NOT FOCUS OF MEETING
Jane Sterk
Times Colonist
November 22, 2012
Re: "Mr. Floatie shut out of Green Party rally," timescolonist.com, Nov. 20.
I am shocked that the article focused on what was happening outside the convention centre rather than inside.
More than 1,300 people listened to amazing speakers, including David Suzuki and Elizabeth May, talk about the need to restore democracy, the economic consequences of climate change, the grave implications of the Canada-China investment treaty, the denigration of science and scientists by our federal government and the refusal of the Harper Conservatives to invest in research, the struggles the Fort Nelson First Nation is having with how hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in northeastern B.C. is poisoning their land and water, and the need for MPs to be freed from party discipline so they can work co-operatively across party lines to find solutions to the challenges we face as a nation.
It seems to me that a factual report about what the speakers said would better serve the public than making Mr.
Floatie the manufactured focus of the evening and this byelection.
Jane Sterk
Leader, Green Party of B.C.
Victoria
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NO SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR SEWAGE PLANT
Richard Brunt
Times Colonist
November 22, 2012
Re: "Sewage-plant opposition reeks of self-interest," Nov. 17.
How ironic that the letter-writer compares the debates on sewage treatment and climate change. With climate change, we have every respected scientific institute and virtually 100 per cent of climate scientists saying global warming is real, and humans are a primary cause.
On the sewage-treatment debate, we have zero scientists saying we need sewage treatment. There is zero scientific evidence, and not even the verbal opinion of a single ocean scientist that the sewage plan is a good one.
On the other hand we have numerous scientists saying our unique situation in Victoria provides natural, cost-free treatment superior to anything man can create.
The proposed sewage-treatment plan is simply a billion-dollar farce, based on no science whatsoever.
Richard Brunt
Victoria
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RECYCLE, CONSERVE SEWAGE WATER
Rob Moore
Times Colonist
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Re: "Science vs. perception on sewage issue," Nov. 18.
According to the letter-writer's science, it appears discharging 129 million litres of screened sewage per day into the strait is just fine, since it is 99.9 per cent water.
Would it not make more sense, then, to put a treatment system in place to allow recycling this water in a manner to preclude, or minimize, discharging this volume at all? If you took this volume and costed it at your current billing rate, what would the value be?
Good fresh-water conservation and management may not be thought of as "science" as much as common sense.
Rob Moore
Victoria
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CRD-RELATED SEWAGE NEWS:
CFAX DEVOTES HOUR TO SEWAGE TREATMENT ISSUE
Frank Stanford devoted an entire hour on CFAX to sewage treatment:
http://stopabadplan.ca/media/
Once again, no one was in favor of the plan.
http://stopabadplan.ca/media/
Once again, no one was in favor of the plan.
------------------------------
HERE'S A MASCOT WE DON'T NEED
Editorial
Times Colonist
November 21, 2012
Mr. Floatie is an ugly memory from Victoria's recent past, and he should stay that way. As the debate over Victoria's sewage-treatment plan rises to new levels of intensity, residents and politicians needs facts and reasoned arguments. There is no place for a walking, talking turd.
Six years ago, the mascot was the most visible and embarrassing figure in the push to get the provincial government to order the region to treat its sewage. Proponents of treatment saw him as a tool to shame governments into action; critics of treatment saw him as a contemptible appeal to emotion, with no basis in fact.
Mr. Floatie was remarkably effective in generating negative publicity for Victoria, both nationally and beyond our borders.
He helped undermine the city's reputation as a beautiful vacation spot.
James Skwarok, the man inside the costume, even ran briefly for mayor of Victoria in 2005, but withdrew when he was told he couldn't campaign as Mr. Floatie. That abortive campaign got him headlines as far away as Arizona.
The debates back then were the same as the ones we hear now, with former federal environment minister David Anderson and medical health officer Dr. Richard Stanwick saying the science didn't support treatment, while federal environment minister Stéphane Dion, the Sierra Legal Defence Fund and Mayor Alan Lowe all pushed for treatment, with comic assistance from Skwarok.
At that time, the estimated cost was $477 million plus $17 million a year in operating costs.
Today, the federal and provincial governments have ordered the region to treat its sewage at an estimated capital cost of $783 million.
After the order came down, it appeared the opponents of treatment had been shunted into irrelevance.
Treatment was coming, and those who objected seemed like quixotic cranks, fighting a battle that was already lost.
Over the past few months, however, as the treatment plans moved ahead, the opponents redoubled their efforts and began to gain some traction and backing from local politicians.
Last week, Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, who has always opposed the planned treatment plant in her municipality, and Saanich Coun. Vic Derman served notice they would introduce motions at the Capital Regional District's sewage committee to suspend work until 2040. Indications are that they might be able to get enough votes to pass in late November.
That would pitch the CRD into a confrontation with the provincial and federal governments, both of whom insist withdrawal is not an option.
Suddenly, the public supporters of sewage treatment have discovered that the battle they thought was over is raging anew. As they threw themselves back into the fray, some turned their thoughts to Mr. Floatie.
Skwarok thinks no one wants him to return, but says: "If necessary, we'll have to bring him back."
It is not necessary and no turn in the debate, no matter how desperate, will make it necessary.
The two sides are wedded to their interpretations of the science, and neither is willing to budge.
But as they try to convince politicians at all levels and residents of Greater Victoria, they must base their appeals on that science.
Hard as it is for all of us find our way through the debate, we have to do it with the facts, not with emotion.
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BYELECTION CAUGHT UP IN SEWAGE DISPUTE
Les Leyne
Times Colonist
November 22, 2012
It's a lot easier to get worked up about the prospect of oil tankers polluting the ocean than it is to pay another $400 a year in taxes in order to avoid fouling it yourself.
Which is why Victoria faces the bewildering prospect of listening to candidates from the Green Party of Canada and the federal Liberal Party, among others, explain why, all of a sudden, the current sewage-treatment plan is wrong.
Among the multitude of University of Victoria professors who are running to become the next Victoria MP, there's been a lot of academic hairsplitting about the never-ending sewage story.
The closer people get to making the decision that will inflict a hefty tax hike to make up for decades of ignoring the obvious problem, the easier it is to get cold feet.
And the byelection campaign has been a crystal-clear demonstration of how desperate candidates will get when it comes to avoiding tough decisions in order to pander to voters who want to do exactly the same thing.
Here's a non-scientific opinion from a layperson: Me.
Dumping raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean in the year 2012 is wrong. Even with all the excuses offered as to why Victoria is so special it doesn't need to bother doing what most other communities do, it doesn't feel right. It can't possibly be a net positive for the environment in the long run.
Relying on "the natural flushing action" of Juan de Fuca Strait to get rid of 130 million litres of wastewater a day is a policy from two generations ago, when we used to dump our garbage out there as well.
Scows dumped garbage off Ogden Point for 50 years, up to 1958. By the 1940s, much of it would float back on to the beaches. It got so bad the Victoria Daily Times in 1944 sarcastically suggested cutting out a step and just dumping garbage on the beaches.
The official response was classic: The city spent years buying better crushing machines to grind garbage up so less of it would float. Then they considered just dumping it further out.
The arguments ran for years, and it took until 1958 to end ocean dumping. The story - in Janis Ringuette's beaconhillparkhistory.org - is uncomfortably close to the sewage story being written today.
And the strangest chapter in that tale is the most recent one, where some federal candidates are tripping over themselves when it comes to backing away from the long march toward a treatment plant.
It was only a few elections ago that the federal Greens were keen to own the sewage issue.
Then-leader Jim Harris held a news conference at Clover Point to point out how unacceptable the status quo was.
Current leader Elizabeth May worked the same issue for years. But faced with the need to get votes, she and her candidate Donald Galloway are waffling. Now he's against rushing into anything. The current plan will "create an economic nightmare," he says.
It wasn't that long ago that federal Liberal leader Stéphane Dion was mad keen for sewage treatment, to the point where he was contradicting his own local MP on the need to start treatment.
Now, Liberal candidate Paul Summerville snaps "billion-dollar boondoggle" every time he's asked about the issue. And Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau backs him up, saying Wednesday he's listening to UVic scientists who say it isn't money well spent.
Similarly, Stephen Harper committed to sewage treatment in the recent past, and later put money down as prime minister to back up the promise.
But this week, his rattled Conservative candidate, Dale Gann, flip-flopped and abandoned his earlier stand in favour of treatment, saying the project needs "sober second thought."
The only candidate with a shot at winning who is holding to the idea that the time has come for treatment is the NDP's Murray Rankin. "I think it's time to get on with it," he said. But even he is being as circumspect as possible, talking about exaggerated cost estimates and ways to possibly do it cheaper.
It's not like these candidates are backtracking all by themselves. Obviously, the voters are driving them to these positions. It's a prime example of the big gulf between the duty to listen to people and the need to show leadership on a problem that will never go away, and gets more expensive the longer action is put off.
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IDEOLOGY TRUMPING SCIENCE IN SEWAGE PLAN: TRUDEAU
Region's secondary treatment plan said to offer 'no net environmental benefit'
Cindy E. Harnett
Times Colonist
November 22, 2012
Even the Liberal leadership hopeful from Papineau, walking through the streets of Victoria on a cloud of second-generation Trudeaumania, couldn't avoid stepping into the region's sewage issue Wednesday.
Justin Trudeau was in town to support Liberal byelection candidate Paul Summerville, whose platform is to kill a proposal to build a single $783-million secondary sewage treatment plant in Esquimalt by 2018.
He addressed the sewage debate throughout his daylong visit, which saw him posing for photos with admirers, signing autographs and being flooded with stories about his father, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
"I think the big issue is evidenced-based policy," Trudeau said in an interview. "The decision is how we are going to spend infrastructure money and taxpayers' money.
"I think there are enough questions about the choices being made ... that should make people realize it's a push of ideology over actual scientific evidence."
The Montreal-area MP would not say whether he's in favour of secondary treatment, but said he supports proper primary treatment and a 21st-century solution that deals with the chemicals going into the ocean.
"There is no net environmental benefit to this secondary sewage treatment plant," Trudeau said.
That's contrary to what former Liberal leader Stephane Dion said in 2007, when he told the Times Colonist that sewage treatment was necessary and that the Liberals would be a strong partner in helping provide innovative approaches.
Trudeau is one of many party leaders and prominent MPs to come to town since Prime Minister Stephen Harper called a byelection for Nov. 26 to replace Victoria NDP MP Denise Savoie, who stepped down for health reasons, as well as MPs in Calgary and Durham, Ont.
Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae was in Victoria to support Summerville, while Opposition NDP leader Thomas Mulcair hosted a rally for Murray Rankin.
Green party leader Elizabeth May got scientist David Suzuki to headline a sold-out rally for candidate Donald Galloway. And Conservative Dale Gann has been visited by many prominent MPs, including Treasury Board president Tony Clement and Heritage Minister James Moore.
Before a packed room of about 300 people at the University of Victoria on Wednesday, a comfortable and composed Trudeau talked about the reasons youth should be engaged in politics and why politicians should listen to their solutions and concerns.
"For the first time Canadians are wondering [whether] it's true that if they work hard ... they can do better than their parents," Trudeau said. "That's something no political party has been willing to take on, because it means challenging old ideologies and orthodoxies and looking at new solutions."
The MP said he still has a lot to learn and wants to hear from - and be challenged by - youth.
"Make sure your voices are ones that politicians can no longer ignore, because I promise you - if ... the people who will vote for the first time in the federal general election in 2015 have an 80 per cent turnout, instead of the 35 per cent it is now - making this country radically different - much, much better - goes from being a pie-in-the-sky idea to flat out inevitable," Trudeau said.
Trudeau also took questions on the Northern Gateway pipeline, trade with China and equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered youth.
So far, eight others have declared their intention to run for the Liberal leadership, including Victorian David Merner.
The leader will be chosen April 14.
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END.
