Victoria, British Columbia is a bustling city and a large tourist destination for Canadians and Americans alike. However, the infrastructure that makes the city go round includes policy that has the city dumping over 20 million gallons of untreated sewage into the ocean each day. This makes Victoria the only major North American city to dump untreated sewage into coastal waters. The Canadian government has already deemed Victoria a high risk marine environment and there will be a treatment working in the city by 2020.
The sewage is dumped into the Strait of Juan de Fuca which borders Washington. Washington residents were unhappy and boycotted tourism to British Columbia. A deal was made to build a sewage treatment plant in Victoria. This all occurred in 1993. This story shows how slow and tedious the policy making and action process can be. The ocean is being quickly degraded by the city's sewage policies, yet agreements to fix the problem are still on hold.
Original Al Jazeera Video (link)
The sewage is dumped into the Strait of Juan de Fuca which borders Washington. Washington residents were unhappy and boycotted tourism to British Columbia. A deal was made to build a sewage treatment plant in Victoria. This all occurred in 1993. This story shows how slow and tedious the policy making and action process can be. The ocean is being quickly degraded by the city's sewage policies, yet agreements to fix the problem are still on hold.
Original Al Jazeera Video (link)