Sewage Treatment Wasted - The Victoria (bc, Canada) Example

摘要

A previous Editorial (Chapman, 2006) provided the background for issues regarding sewage discharged by the City of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) and environs (the Capital Regional District, CRD). In brief, the sewage receives preliminary screening to remove solids larger than 6 mm prior to discharge more than 1 km offshore in roughly 60 m deep, well-mixed marine waters with strong tidal currents. Despite scientific evidence that there are no major environmental or human health impacts, this discharge of 'untreated' sewage has been a constant irritation to the city's US neighbours and to environmental groups, has resulted in a large number of lay opinions in the popular media (radio, television, newspapers, magazines), and finally resulted (July 2006) in the British Columbia Minister of the Environment directing the CRD to move to secondary sewage treatment.