Sludge Watch ==> Vancouver sewage plants failing toxicity tests for last seven years

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

A group of Environmental organizations brought the polluters into 
court...but the Canadian federal government stayed the lawsuit to allow the 
pollution to continue.

See the second story on this page.
......................................................................



http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=d8b754dd-caee-4139-ba74-8d1b62148650


Sunday » May 4 » 2008

Metro sewage plants failing federal tests
Details on recent pollution testing not readily available, but probe finds 
problem goes back to 2001

Leslie Young, with files from Glenn Bohn
Special to The Vancouver Sun


Saturday, May 03, 2008



CREDIT: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
Annacis Island sewage treatment plant in Delta is one of three waste-water 
plants that have failed dozens of basic monthly toxicity tests.

Three Metro Vancouver sewage treatment plants have been failing federal 
environmental tests at least seven years while dumping billions of litres of 
partly treated waste into the Fraser River, Burrard Inlet and the Strait of 
Georgia without penalty.

Details on recent pollution test failures are not readily available, but 
documents acquired through Freedom of Information requests show the problem 
goes back at least to 2001.

The three waste-water plants -- Iona Island in Richmond, Lions Gate in West 
Vancouver and Annacis Island in Delta -- have failed dozens of basic monthly 
toxicity tests that measure how harmful waste water is to fish and marine 
life.

In 2006, the most recent year for which numbers are available, all three 
plants failed the test six times. That means three of the province's largest 
treatment plants are in breach of federal environmental laws for half the 
year.

However, Metro Vancouver official Albert Van Roodselaar says other tests 
show the liquid coming out of the three plants doesn't harm the environment.

"We have a very comprehensive program to show that when we discharge to the 
environment, the environment is not being adversely affected," Van 
Roodselaar said in an interview.

"We do not believe we are being deleterious to the environment."

Environment Canada officials were not available for an interview. But its 
media relations office e-mailed a statement repeating a Conservative promise 
to bring in "tough new regulations on sewage treatment, and to ban the 
dumping of raw sewage in our rivers, lakes and oceans."

The e-mail noted there were two Fisheries Act prosecutions against Metro 
Vancouver for allegedly dumping fish-killing liquids from the Iona and Lions 
Gate plants. The prosecutions were launched by environmental groups, not 
Environment Canada, and the federal justice department stayed or halted one 
of them.

Surrey Coun. Marvin Hunt, chairman of Metro Vancouver's waste management 
committee, cited Metro studies showing its effluent does not harm living 
things after it has been diluted by river and ocean water.

Asked why Metro Vancouver hasn't upgraded the plants to ensure the liquids 
they dump aren't harmful, Hunt replied: "The question assumes guilt."

Van Roodselaar, manager of Metro's utility analysis and environmental 
management division, said the three plants repeatedly fail standard toxicity 
tests because of high levels of ammonia from urine and not enough oxygen in 
the water.

Hunt said Metro's draft waste-management plan proposes a $1-billion upgrade 
at Iona and a new $400- to $600-million North Shore sewage treatment plant. 
There are options with completion dates as early as 2020, but Hunt said 
Metro already has several big-ticket construction projects underway and the 
high cost is an obstacle.

The standard toxicity test, originally devised by Environment Canada in 
1990, is performed by an outside lab. A sample is taken from treated waste 
water before it enters the environment. Rainbow trout are placed in the 
sampled water for 96 hours. If more than half of the fish die, the test is 
considered a failure.

Publicly available documents on Metro Vancouver's website list 21 test 
failures among its five treatment plants in 2006. Annual reports obtained 
from the region show a total of 18 failures in 2005 and 13 in 2004 for all 
plants in the region.

Internal documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, 
mention earlier failures from 2001 to 2003 but do not provide totals. 
Officials admit to the repeated failures, but say the harm is overstated and 
that if samples were taken from the water just outside the pipe, survival 
rates would improve.

Christianne Wilhelmson of the Georgia Strait Alliance countered: "Fish 
aren't floating to the surface and dying, but every day you're putting 
mercury and arsenic and a long list of chemicals into the ocean. And over 
time, that is contaminating the ecosystem."

Despite the string of failures, Environment Canada has laid no pollution 
charges against the district. Internal memos between Environment Canada and 
the region, obtained through Access to Information laws, show growing 
federal discomfort with Metro's treatment strategies, dating back to 2001. 
Environment Canada did issue an official warning against the region under 
the Fisheries Act in March 2001, but no further action was taken.

The region has been convicted before under the Fisheries Act. It and the 
Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District pleaded guilty in 1981 in a 
private prosecution relating to the release of sewage from the Iona plant. 
They were fined $5,000 and a committee was set up to study solutions. As a 
result, a 7.5-km-deep sea outfall pipe was built in 1988 to deposit treated 
waste water further out to sea.

Environmental groups are critical of the situation and the lack of 
government response. Ecojustice (formerly the Sierra Legal Defence Fund), in 
its National Sewage Report Card rated Metro Vancouver among Canada's worst 
urban regions in terms of sewage treatment quality in 2004. Other groups are 
concerned about the long-term impact of repeated test failures.

Metro's sewage treatment plants are required to test waste water monthly and 
to report results to the B.C. Ministry of the Environment. Failed tests have 
to be recorded and investigated, although the region ultimately decides what 
action, if any, should be taken.

There are admitted problems with the toxicity test. Small variations in the 
test procedure can yield different results, said Ken Hall, a professor at 
the Institute of Resources and Environment at UBC.

Hall also criticized the test for not being realistic, as fish are not 
normally exposed to undiluted waste water. Regardless, the test remains the 
standard for determining the toxicity of waste water.

The type of treatment facility can have an impact on results. At two of its 
facilities, Metro Vancouver still uses primary treatment processes, which 
are considered the least effective form of sewage treatment, as they remove 
only between 40 and 60 per cent of suspended solids from the sewage and 
reduce the level of fecal coliform (harmful bacteria) by 45 to 55 per cent.

Iona Island, the region's largest sewage plant, treats about half a billion 
litres of sewage a day in this manner. This facility and Lions Gate, the 
other primary treatment facility in Metro Vancouver, are the worst offenders 
for toxicity tests.

The region's three other sewage treatment plants employ secondary treatment. 
After primary treatment, they expose the sewage to bacteria that devour 
organic matter and trap dissolved particles, resulting in a much cleaner 
discharge. Tertiary treatment, an even higher standard of treatment, is used 
by cities like Calgary and Whistler and cleans out even more dissolved 
chemicals and organic matter.

Policy makers in Metro Vancouver recognize the advantages of secondary 
treatment of sewage, but have chosen not to fully upgrade to secondary 
treatment until 2030 because of the high costs involved and what they 
believe to be the low environmental damage of current treatment methods.

"Our position is that if it is not of any environmental consequence, then 
what is the rationale for [adding secondary treatment sooner]?" Van 
Roodselaar said.

Still, Metro Vancouver is planning improvements to treatment quality. The 
region's Liquid Waste Management Plan which Environment Canada warned in 
2001 was insufficient to deal with the region's obligations under the 
Fisheries Act, nonetheless includes requirements to upgrade the Iona Island 
plant to secondary treatment by 2020 and the Lions Gate plant by 2030.

Some environmentalists object to the long timelines, but Van Roodselaar says 
it takes roughly 10 years to plan and construct such comprehensive plant 
upgrades.

Wilhelmson, a biologist and environmental activist, says the cumulative 
effects of the discharges are yet to be seen.

"The chemicals are being absorbed by phytoplankton, by zooplankton that are 
being eaten by the fish," she said. "The fish therefore have higher 
concentrations of the chemicals. They are then being eaten by the whales, 
and therefore, that concentration is even higher in the whales."

Environmental groups have been fighting for improved treatment facilities 
for years.

A retired environmental lawyer in Vancouver took matters into his own hands, 
launching a lawsuit against Metro Vancouver in 2006 for allegedly violating 
the federal Fisheries Act by unlawfully depositing "a deleterious substance, 
to wit, sewage, in a place under conditions where the deleterious substance 
entered water frequented by fish."

Douglas Chapman, who initiated the suit, is also suing the province for 
allegedly permitting Metro Vancouver to do so. If convicted, Metro could 
face a fine of up to $300,000 for each of the eight days named in the 
lawsuit when it allegedly failed the toxicity test. The case is pending 
hearing in 2009.

The federal government has enforced the Fisheries Act against municipalities 
in the past. In 2003, Dawson City in the Yukon was convicted for dumping its 
sewage into the Yukon River after minimal treatment. Like Metro, it 
repeatedly failed toxicity tests, though to a higher degree, and also like 
Metro, there were few environmental effects of the dumping observed in the 
river. A judge decided the toxicity test failures were enough to convict.

Dawson City was fined $5,000 and ordered to complete construction of a 
secondary sewage plant by September 2004.

The Fisheries Act itself is clear. Section 36(3) prohibits the deposit of 
any deleterious substance into fish-bearing waters. The toxicity test 
mandated by Environment Canada has emerged as the legal standard.

"There are 30 years of case law under the provision," said Lara Tessaro, a 
lawyer with Ecojustice and the legal counsel for Chapman. "The courts have 
endorsed the toxicity testing methods used by Environment Canada and it's 
according to those methods that the GVRD and its lab technicians are testing 
their effluent."

Metro is not the only region that has problems with its waste-water 
treatment. Victoria does not currently treat its sewage, and was ordered by 
the province in 2006 to begin construction of a treatment facility. St. 
John's, N.L., also does not treat its sewage, but its first treatment plant 
is being built. Halifax opened a new plant in February 2008.

Metro Vancouver has begun an education program for residents of the North 
Shore, counseling them to use less detergent in the hope of reducing a major 
factor in toxicity test failures at Lions Gate.

Environment Canada has been working with provincial governments since 2003 
to create national quality standards for municipal waste water. These 
standards will likely be announced later this year. It is unclear whether 
they will be enforced by the federal government or left for provinces to 
enforce.


....................................



Feds denounced for staying sewage pollution charge
Metro Vancouver allowed to continue toxic dumping until 2030




Environmental groups are angry that the federal government has stayed a 
pollution charge against one of the largest water polluters in British 
Columbia, Metro Vancouver which could be allowed to continue toxic dumping 
until 2030. [October 11, 2007]
NORTH VANCOUVER, BC Oct 11, 2007


Environmental groups are angry that the federal government has stayed a 
pollution charge against one of the largest water polluters in British 
Columbia, Metro Vancouver (formerly the Greater Vancouver Regional District 
or GVRD). A private prosecution had been launched by environmental groups 
regarding repeated failures of fish toxicity tests by the sewage effluent 
from Metro Vancouver’s Lions Gate Sewage Treatment Plant, serving North 
and West Vancouver.

In August 2006, veteran environmental investigator Douglas Chapman and 
Ecojustice Canada (formerly Sierra Legal) laid a charge under the federal 
Fisheries Act against Metro Vancouver and the Province of BC over the Lions 
Gate plant, with the support of Georgia Strait Alliance, T. Buck Suzuki 
Foundation and the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union – CAW. These 
groups are asking Metro Vancouver to upgrade Lions Gate by no later than 
2013. The Metro Vancouver Liquid Waste Management Plan has stalled this 
upgrade until 2030, and the Province has sanctioned 23 more years of toxic 
pollution by approving this Plan.

The Lions Gate plant discharges 33 billion litres of sewage effluent each 
year via an outfall just 500 metres east of the Capilano River. As the 
facility provides only primary treatment (which settles out some of the 
solid waste), Lions Gate effluent includes PCBs, pesticides, heavy metals 
and other toxic substances that pollute coastal waters and harm fish. 
Evidence filed in Court shows that from June 2001 to April 2006, Lions Gate 
failed monthly toxicity tests 17 times and received legal warnings from 
Environment Canada.

“The Federal Government’s decision to stop this prosecution means the 
foul mix of human waste and toxic chemicals will continue their way into 
Burrard Inlet and Georgia Strait,” said David Lane, Executive Director of 
T. Buck Suzuki Foundation. “The question now is will Metro Vancouver do 
the right thing and immediately start upgrading this plant.”

“The Provincial Court has already ruled that Mr. Chapman has enough 
evidence for this charge to go to trial,” said Ecojustice lawyer Lara 
Tessaro. “Concerned citizens should demand to know why the federal 
government has shielded these big, powerful polluters from prosecution.”

“While the federal government refuses to prosecute the Province and Metro 
Vancouver, the pollution of Burrard Inlet only gets worse,” said 
investigator Doug Chapman. “Metro Vancouver’s own test results show that 
Lions Gate effluent is still failing fish toxicity tests required by its 
provincial permit, most recently in August 2007.”

Represented by Ecojustice, Mr. Chapman has also laid a charge against Metro 
Vancouver and the Province for similar alleged violations of the federal 
Fisheries Act at the Iona Sewage Treatment Plant in Richmond.

The groups expect that the timelines for upgrading these two treatment 
plants can be expedited, because Metro Vancouver is about to review its 
Liquid Waste Management Plan this November. They are calling on Metro 
Vancouver politicians to show leadership in modernizing sewage treatment 
practices now.

For further information, please contact:

Lara Tessaro, Staff Lawyer, Ecojustice               (604) 685-5618        
ext. 245; cell:               (604) 313-3132
Christianne Wilhelmson, Program Coordinator, Georgia Strait Alliance         
       (604) 633-0530       , cell:               (604) 862-7579
David Lane, Executive Director, T. Buck Suzuki Foundation               
(604) 519-3635       , cell:               (604) 258-8119
Doug Chapman, Informant and Environmental Investigator, cell:               
(604) 838-1584

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