CONTENTS OF THIS BLOG:
ARESST ACTION:
- VICTORIA MAYOR'S OPEN DOORS 1 AND 15 FEBRUARY
- ADDED TO VIDEO ARCHIVES OF CRD SEWAGE CAMPAIGN
CRD-RELATED SEWAGE & RELATED NEWS:
- RAIL TO MOVE FULL STEAM AHEAD WITH REGIONAL FUNDING (SEWAGE PLAN MENTION)
RELATED LOCAL NEWS
- TALK: MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY BEACH: BEACHES AS CRITICAL FISH HABITATS
LETTERS:
- MORE SHOULD BE DONE TO RECOVER SEWAGE HEAT
- SHARING THE OCEAN, SHARING THE AIR
- MAUI: WASTE WATER DISCHARGE LEADING TO SHARK ATTACKS?
RELATED ENVIRONMENT NEWS
- FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PROMISE TO PROTECT MARINE AREAS IS WAY BEHIND TARGET
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ARESST ACTION:
Dean Fortin welcomes the opportunity to meet with citizens to discuss their issues and concerns during "Open Door".
Friday, 1 February, 9am - 11 am, in the Mayor's office, City Hall, 1 Centennial Square.
Friday, 15 February ,9am - 11am, in caffe fantastico, 965 Kings Road in Quadra Village.
No appointment necessary.
ADDED TO VIDEO ARCHIVES OF CRD SEWAGE CAMPAIGN
Good archives here:
http://bchannelnews.tv/?p=603
Several interesting videos of the consultants at CALWMC explaining their site analysis to the directors.
http://bchannelnews.tv/?p=603
Several interesting videos of the consultants at CALWMC explaining their site analysis to the directors.
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CRD-RELATED SEWAGE & RELATED NEWS:
Daniel Palmer
Victoria News
January 23, 2013 2:48 PM
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO VICTORIA NEWS
The return of rail to Vancouver Island is moving full steam ahead.
As Capital Regional District directors finalize their 2013 budget, the biggest piece of new spending is intended to get passenger rail service back up and running between Victoria and Courtenay.
"I really think it's important we restore rail, not only for intercity transport, but also for commuter rail," said Victoria Coun. Ben Isitt, who sits on the CRD's finance committee that recommended the funding boost last fall.
The Island Corridor Foundation will receive $1.2 million from the CRD and a total of $5.4 million from the five Island regional districts to make necessary bridge and trestle upgrades, with the hope of restoring VIA Rail service between Victoria, Courtenay and Nanaimo, said ICF director Graham Bruce.
"We're right in the middle of the train service agreement right now," he said, adding the trains could have early morning service to Victoria.
The federal and provincial governments have also promised $14 million for necessary rail tie replacements and track work.
"If all goes well, work could probably start sometime in May," Bruce said.
CRD staff are recommending the funding be split into two annual payments of $600,000 to keep 2013 costs contained.
The foundation is open to working with all the regional districts on the best funding model, but conversations will continue to "make sure that works well for us, too," Bruce said.
The CRD's 2013 preliminary budget calls for a 2.5-per-cent increase in spending this year. That doesn't include costs associated with the region's $783-million secondary sewage treatment project, which will be presented separately to the wastewater committee in the coming weeks.
"I think most people around the board table realize there's not a lot of appetite for new spending, and that overall, we should be looking to provide good, cost-effective government and not (be) embarking in new areas," Isitt said.
Rail is a largely considered an appropriate exception because of its importance in economic development and population growth in the region.
Passenger rail service is only the first step to a revived rail industry on the Island, Bruce said.
"It's not the end game, it's the beginning game. If there are demand increases and if we find other opportunities, then we'd operate to suit those as well."
CRD directors have until March 31 to approve the 2013 budget.
dpalmer@vicnews.com
http://www.vicnews.com/news/
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GENERAL SEWAGE NEWS
TALK: MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY BEACH: BEACHES AS CRITICAL FISH HABITATS
Monday, January 28
Free public event hosted by
Victoria Natural History Society
Ramona C. de Graaf is a forage fish specialist and Executive Director of the Coastal Conservation Institute of BC. Her talk highlights the spawning ecology of three critical forage fish: herring, surf smelt and Pacific sand lance.
She will discuss their role in the near shore marine ecosystem and their importance to marine predators within coastal BC waters. All three of these species spawn within metres of where we live and play.
Ramona will also introduce a very important marine conservation project that is taking place in your back yards!
Meet at 7:30 pm Rm 159 Fraser building, UVic. Everyone is welcome. Bring a friend.
Note: Uvic parking is $2.25.
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LETTERS:
MORE SHOULD BE DONE TO RECOVER SEWAGE HEAT
TIMES COLONIST
JANUARY 21, 2013
Re: “Bring heat to Esquimalt,” Jan. 17.
Recovering heat energy from the proposed sewage treatment plant at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt continues to be a hot topic of debate.
“In Esquimalt, the buildings are two kilometres from the plant, so a major part of the study will be whether the plan makes financial sense over that distance.”
At Okanagan College the “pipes from the sewage plant to the college boilers are 500 metres long, and if the distance were only a little greater, the system would not have been financially viable.”
And yet, we have the Capital Regional District planning to pipe the sludge to, and water back, from Hartland for a total of 36-kilometre round trip.
Too bad Esquimalt needs to spend so much money to reveal what the CRD already knows from its own studies concluding that for maximum resource recovery, liquids and solids should be processed on the same site. This is impossible at McLoughlin Point because it is just too small.
We should demand a regional strategy that includes a number a smaller treatment facilities as part of a distributed system, built next to hospitals, universities and other public facilities that could benefit from maximum resource recovery.
This is a viable option that has never been seriously investigated.
Instead the CRD continues down a path that is guaranteed to waste energy and money.
Carole Witter
Esquimalt
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SHARING THE OCEAN, SHARING THE AIR
TIMES COLONIST
JANUARY 25, 2013
Re: “Port Angeles mayor extols Victoria-area sewage plan,” Jan. 20.
It’s great that Port Angeles Mayor Cherie Kidd supports our sewage-treatment plans.
We support her stopping the incessant air pollution from that paper mill over there.
We share the same air.
Dominic Kelly
Victoria
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ARESST: Note that the Wailuku-Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility is a secondary-stage sewage plant.
MAUI: WASTE WATER DISCHARGE LEADING TO SHARK ATTACKS?
Judith Eagle, Central Maui
Mauinow.com
January 24th, 2013
On sharks, maybe the reason shark bites are up is simple.
First, the wastewater plant in Kahului is degrading the ocean in Kahului with its huge nightly discharges stinking of methane. Yet the turtles love the stuff that stinks. They flock to the discharge area. Sharks flock to them.
That makes Kahului particularly shark bait from September through November, during migration.
Another factoid which may be somewhat responsible: a TEDx promoter said that, yearly, 70,000,000 sharks are killed. Yet ever heard of anyone killing a shark here? Maybe the sharks are not so clueless. Maybe sharks actually are a little grumpy about the sharkocide elsewhere. Just perhaps they don’t like their fins torn off for soup. Maybe they flock to Maui (as whales do) in greater numbers because Maui is usually a gentle place to winter and give birth.
How can it hurt to require the waste water discharge to be much cleaner? When the water quality in Kahului becomes dirtier each year, isn’t better water quality a must? Maui insiders say not to swim there with a cut.
Some also say that they nonetheless want the right to eat turtle again. Those locals can suggest guidelines such as on how many can be taken.
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RELATED ENVIRONMENT NEWS
ARESST: CPAWS' report makes no mention of any sewage issues in its Southern Georgia Strait section (page 11).
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PROMISE TO PROTECT MARINE AREAS IS WAY BEHIND TARGET
JUDITH LAVOIE
TIMES COLONIST
JANUARY 24, 2013
Federal promises to create a network of marine protected areas are progressing at a snail’s pace, and there are fears that federal cutbacks will slow the process even further, says a report by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
Canada made a commitment in 2010 to protect at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas by 2020, but, with only one per cent protected so far, there is a long way to go, said Sabine Jessen, the conservation group’s national oceans manager.
“There have been small steps of progress, but not as much as we had been expecting,” she said.
There are financial and environmental benefits to strong ocean protection, which makes the slow rate of change frustrating, Jessen said.
“Marine protected areas are key to ensuring healthy stocks of fish and other forms of marine life for the future. There is absolutely no long-term financial gain in failing to invest in marine protection.”
Much of the holdup is simply the sticky slowness of government, especially as Fisheries and Oceans, Environment Canada and Parks Canada are all working on marine protected areas, Jessen said.
“Things just get so held up internally in government,” she said. “Now, with government cutbacks, we are seriously concerned about the government’s capacity to move ahead.”
There are also fears there will not be enough funding in place to offer long-term protection. The group wants $35 million a year dedicated to creating and managing marine protected areas.
The conservation group has identified 12 areas for protection, including four on the B.C. coast: the Hecate Strait Glass Sponge Reefs, Scott Islands, Southern Strait of Georgia and Big Eddy, off the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The conservation group says there has been significant progress on protecting Hecate Strait’s 9,000-year-old glass sponge reefs and the marine protected area could be completed by December this year.
But the reefs, some of which are 25 metres tall, could be damaged before they are fully protected, it says.
“Recent scientific research indicates that sedimentation, caused by bottom trawling activities adjacent to the reefs, could seriously harm their chances of survival.”
Progress has also been made on the Scott Islands, a seabird nesting haven, and legal designation is expected by the end of the year.
But the group rates conservation measures as weak, as proposed rules do not limit industrial activities such as commercial fishing or shipping.
A fisheries management plan is expected to identify risks, but the work is not expected to be completed until 2017.
The Southern Strait of Georgia has also seen progress, with an agreement that will see the province transfer seabed ownership to the federal government.
But, again, the group has concerns and wants an interim management plan developed.
“Although Parks Canada and the B.C. government have been working on the feasibility study for over 10 years, it is still not completed,” the report says. “In the meantime, the Southern Strait of Georgia is open to intensive shipping and heavy recreational fishing use.”
There has been no progress on Big Eddy and conservation measures are rated as uncertain.
The goal is an international marine park stretching from the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary to Vancouver Island. However, last year, Parks Canada withdrew a request for proposals for a study of the Vancouver Island shelf marine region.
The area’s marine ecosystems are in crisis, the report says.
“In recent years the signs have become unmistakable. Declines in rockfish, salmon stocks and orca populations, harmful algal blooms and destruction from bottom trawling,” it says.
A spokesman for Environment Minister Peter Kent said the government has demonstrated a commitment to conservation.
“We understand CPAWS’s dedication to conservation and appreciate their impatience,” Adam Sweet said. “However, our government is working through the many complicated processes required to negotiate the creation of these protected spaces.”
Significant decisions have been made on three of the 12 areas highlighted by CPAWS, Sweet said — including in the Southern Strait of Georgia, where the provincial and federal governments are close to completing consultations.
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