In article .com,
says...

Gordon wrote:
Victoria, Canada, pumps 19 million gallons of raw sewage intp the Straits
of Juan de Fuca every single day. That has to convert to the whole continent
of asia!
Gordon


This 'raw sewage' is actually mostly 'grey water'- from showers and
sinks, but no matter. Let's put some numbers to this to reduce the
hysteria level a bit.

Opposite the CloverPoint outfall in Victoria, the Strait is about 20km
wide. Let's use .5 km as the depth of the strait. On an average day,
outgoing tide, there's a 3kt or so tidal current in the strait. Let's
say 5 km/hr. So in one hour, during ebb tide, about 50 cubic kilometers
of water pass the outfall (which is well offshore, in deep water).

Let's convert that sewage number into cubic kilometers. 20 million
gallons (Imperial) is about 100 million liters, or 100,000 cubic
meters, or about .0001 cubic kilometers.
Even if all the daily 'raw sewage' were dumped in one hour, the
contribution to the total outflow in the Strait would be negligable.

Of course the problem is that the 20million gallons is not mixed into
ALL the daily flow past the outfall. Under some conditions nearby
beaches may get significant contamination.

http://www.georgiastrait.org/CAW/EC_review.pdf

Many scientific studies have shown that additional treatment of sewage
from Victoria is unnecessary and a waste of money. We've got hundreds
(thousands?) of people living on the streets here, people are dying on
stretchers in hallways in our hospitals, and the enviro-wingnuts want
to waste money on a $500 million sewer rebuild. It works for me!

What's wrong with the vaunted Canadian health care system then? I
thought it provided at at least basic healt care to all Canadians.
Why that situation almost sounds like a hospital in the USA! ;-)


I can understand limits on sewage discharge in areas with limited
tidal flow (Squirrel Cove, Prideaux Haven, etc.), but requiring
full treatment of all effluents in all areas is a bit nonsensical.
This is especially true when most modern city treatment plants in
areas with high rainfall cannot economically treat all effluents without
VERY costly complete separation of sewers and stormwater runoff.

Mark Borgerson