Jun
4
NOTE: Last month we had the pleasure of receiving a large number of issues of the James Bay News, a forerunner of the Beacon, dating back to 1973. In the coming months we will be combing through this precious resource to bring to our readers some of the things that caught the attention of the paper at that time.
Here is a Van Williams article from November, 1973, titled “Sewage – Waste or Resource?”
Many North Americans are viewing the growing energy crisis with alarm, fearing that the shortages of oil, steel, newsprint and beef are a potential threat to our well being. Disagreeing, Buckminster Fuller says we are short not of energy, but of intelligence. Regarding the availability of energy and resources, he says that we have been taking the cream off the top.
Our sewage disposal practices completely contradict the reality of our dwindling energy and nutrient resources. So long have we basked in our affluence that we have come to regard sewage, not as a recyclable resource, but as a “waste” to be disposed of as cheaply and unobtrusively as possible.
Greater Victoria pours about 50 gallons per capita per day of raw sewage into its tidal waters. There are major outfalls at Finnerty Cove, McMick Point, Clover Point, and Macaulay Point. All outfalls are just off shore except for the new Macaulay Point outfall which extends a mile out and to a depth of 200 feet. The outfalls just offshore have resulted in water that is too polluted for swimming, However, the more ecologically significant question is what effect does discharging untreated sewage have on the eco-systems of the receiving waters.
In order to study this question objectively, the Pollution Control Branch commissioned the biology department of the University of Victoria to monitor the area around the new Macaulay Point diffuser for a period of 15 months before and after the commencement of sewage discharge. The results of that study showed “no significant changes in the environmental quality” in that short term at the existing discharge rates. This study was completed in October, 1972, and there have been no significant changes in either the monitored data or the discharge rate to present at Macaulay Point.
SPEC, on the other hand, cautioned about the long range effects in a brief submitted to the Pollution Control Branch April 30, 1973: “Currently, in the order of 500,000,000 gallons of water per day are being discharged into the Gulf of Georgia. It is a large but semi-enclosed body of water that ‘changes’ about once a year. It is estimated the population around the Gulf of Georgia and Puget Sound will be 10 million by the year 2000, more than double the present population. We believe far more consideration must be given to the overlapping of various discharge ‘plumes’ and to the cumulative and synergistic effects.”
This kind of negative incentive isn’t operative in the short run however. Therefore, the greatest incentive for change may have to come from the positive potential for reclaiming that which we now dispose of. Yearly, Victoria discharges 65 tons of phosphates and 120 tons of organic nitrates with its sewages. A lot of commercial fertilizer could be made from such waste. Other interesting ways in which sewage can be recycled include the following:
1. Natural (organic) fertilizer produced from sludge as successfully demonstrated in Milwaukee.
2. Irrigating with treated effluent. This technique is successfully applied in the interior; however the soil around Victoria is not the right kind for this method.
3. Sewage lagoons in which fish are raised.
4. Methane gas production as in Vancouver.
5. Effluent as a rich cultural medium for the production of micro-organisms for high protein animal feed.
These are a few of the ways in which it is possible to get at the resources “beneath the cream” of which Buckminster Fuller spoke. However, any of these methods would have to be feasible within the context of Victoria’s particular environment. Most certainly we would have to be prepared to pay more than if we continue discharging untreated sewage.
The U. Vic biology team concluded its report to the Pollution Control branch with this recommendation: “Because waste disposal may have implications beyond its impact on the receiving waters, it is recommended that university and government agencies institute long range studies on the ecological, social and economic implications of the various methods of handling waste, including the question of disposal versus recycling.” The Pollution Control Branch has not acted affirmatively upon this recommendation.