The application for a discharge permit using Victoria’s existing long outfall system was submitted by an engineer with a doctorate in environmental engineering.
It was also assessed by one with a master’s degree and by an environmental chemist, and was based on experience gained from existing long outfall systems in England and California.
A professor of biological oceanography wrote that “we should be promoting our system as one of the most efficient and environmentally sound systems in North America.”
The director of the Pat Bay Oceanographic Centre gave lectures explaining why Victoria did not need secondary treatment.
The outfalls were monitored by a biologist and a medical health officer and found to be perfect.
Systems like ours are working in California, other parts of Canada, England and Australia. All that hard won knowledge has now been abandoned in favour of doing what is popular. The end result will protect the environment and health no better and in some ways worse than the one we have.
The result is not just the loss of funds to meet other needs but the massive damage to our democracy by preferring what is popular to what science dictates.
The CRD politicians have no idea of the impact of miles of excavation in rock to lay pipes we don’t need nor care about the numbers who will finish permanently impaired from injury. My calculation from past records makes it five with broken backs or lost arms. A contemptible environmental crime. I spent much of my life designing sewage treatment plants
Ted Dew-Jones
Victoria