By Malcolm Curtis, Victoria Times Colonist, 1 November 2005
Ben received the endorsement of an unlikely figure in 2005, Mr. Floatie, mascot of the group People Opposed to Outfall Pollution (POOP)
For whatever reason, sewage treatment has suddenly moved up the agenda as a high priority in Victoria, even if politicians in neighbouring municipalities — and the provincial government — don’t see the need for it yet.
Today, it’s hard to find a Victoria candidate who is even opposed to secondary treatment of raw sewage, which is currently only screened for solids before being pumped into the ocean.
Sewage priorities have shifted even though the subject has hardly been talked about in city council chambers during the past three years.
Maybe it’s because federal Environment Minister Stephane Dion said during a visit here in July that all cities in Canada should be treating their sewage.
Or maybe it’s because of the antics of UVic education student James Skwarok — in his costume as Mr. Floatie, a simulated feces — to highlight the issue. He even launched an aborted run for city mayor.
Skwarok’s candidacy was rejected when city officials refused to accept his signature as Mr. Floatie. By that time publicity about his campaign — a reminder of the fact Victoria doesn’t treat its sewage — had made news across the continent.
Skwarok has since endorsed Ben Isitt, the Victoria Civic Electors candidate for mayor. Isitt is calling for tertiary treatment and stronger controls of pollutants such as detergents and chemicals at their source.
For his part Mayor Alan Lowe has committed to lobby for funding for sewage treatment from provincial and federal governments.
But Isitt says Lowe has had six years to do this work and “there really hasn’t been any action.”
Lowe’s response is that the previous federal environment minister, former Victoria MP David Anderson, believed there was no scientific evidence of the need for treatment.
The mayor said he did not want to waste energy pushing for sewage treatment when federal funding would not be available. Now Dion is calling for change, Lowe said, “I think it is time” to lobby the government for funding and to pressure the region into supporting a plan.
Meantime, the VCE, affiliated with the New Democratic Party, launched a broadside against B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner, who has refused to commit money for sewage treatment in Greater Victoria.
The B.C. Liberal cabinet minister recently defended the practice of pumping screened sewage into the ocean and said that “science” would determine when the region would treat its sewage, not politics.
VCE candidate Erik Kaye called Penner’s comments “disgusting” and suggested politics are very much at the core of the government’s lack of support for sewage treatment.
Penner is relying on “trigger” levels for sewage set by the Capital Regional District to determine whether it is adversely affecting marine organisms around the region’s two outfalls.
But Kaye said the CRD is not following federal standards, which already call for the sewage to be treated. And he accused incumbent Coun. Chris Coleman, a Liberal supporter seeking re-election, of casting the deciding vote at the CRD board against a study that would accept the federal standards.
“We’re still considering whether to do sewage treatment rather than how to do it,” Kaye said.
Coleman said CRD minutes show the VCE is misinformed.
“If they’re saying I voted against it to slow down sewage treatment they’re wrong.” He said he began campaigning for sewage treatment when he first ran for office in the late 1980s.
Penner said he has heard that residents in Esquimalt and Victoria are concerned about where potential sewage treatment plants will be built. But outgoing VCE candidate Coun. Denise Savoie said these worries are overblown.
Rather than having large-scale plants, the region could have a series of smaller treatment facilities that will not be an eyesore in any community, she said. “We have to look at the technology that’s already out there.”
