One of the reasons some Townsite residents are opposed to the sewage plant on the old golf course lands, according to a recent Peak story [“City broaches wastewater treatment option,” February 7], was its impact on the environment. This is a very complex issue that deserves some explanation.
These lands are on a rolling southwestern slope, rich with meadow grasses, shrubbery, young- and old-growth conifers and deciduous trees, and plenty of nourishment. On one side is shoreline and on the other a clean, freshwater, fish-bearing stream that runs year round and provides plenty of shade and cover for more than 100 species of birds, which use the property because it is on the Pacific migratory flyway, is an excellent nesting site or is just right as a year-round habitat.
Including amphibians, birds, mammals and fish, there are more than two dozen species listed in the 2015 federal Species at Risk Act that depend on this particular marine and terrestrial habitat. The 2017 provincial Endangered Species bill specifically targets “preserving healthy ecosystems because it is easier, more cost-effective and avoids needless animal suffering” because “the entire world is in the midst of an extinction crisis and humans are the driving force.” Fifty per cent of BC’s wildlife species are fighting to survive in 2018.
Another aspect of the environmental impact is that a single pipe will spew the effluent from Cranberry, Townsite, Tla’amin Nation, Westview, Wildwood and Powell River General Hospital into the Second Beach marine environment. Also, 90 per cent of biosolids will be trucked out of Powell River.
The city has chosen to build a secondary treatment plant. Unfortunately, toxins, viruses, metals, pathogens, pharmaceuticals and microplastics will be pumped into the narrow Malaspina Strait. These chemicals build up to form toxic combinations that cause deformities, ruin reproductive systems, destroy digestive systems, and in the case of the microplastics found in detergents, toothpastes and makeup, end up clogging gills, sticking to bodies and artificially filling up the guts and starving many marine species. Eventually, microplastics end up coating the ocean floor and smothering the species that live there as well.
Facts continue to be uncovered by scientists on this horrific new frontier. To prevent this, the city could build a tertiary treatment plant, as well as install membranes on the final product before it enters the ocean. Instead, city council plans to mount an “educational campaign.”
It is heartbreaking to imagine sea lions, whales, dolphins, porpoises, fish, otters and seabirds living in, swimming through and hunting for food in this growing chemical and plastic cocktail.
It is also preventable in this “coastal by nature,” outstandingly beautiful area of the world.
Lesley Armstrong is a concerned resident of Townsite in Powell River.
