Don Vincent: The scoop on your poop

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      Dear Vancouver,

      I lived in Vancouver for many years, and I really didn’t think about where things went after I flushed. Living out in the countryside, as I do now, I soon found out! Vancouver’s so-called green solution is to truck out its not-so-green problem to other parts of the province. Vancouver likes to think it is a world-class city, but in fact it is employing a very dirty solution to a problem that should be dealt with according to industry best practices, as carried out in many parts of Europe—clean incineration, with a net gain of energy to the grid. Trucking out its sewer sludge is the cheap option—not the healthiest, and not the greenest.

      Nowhere in Vancouver can you let your doggie have a poop without picking up after it, yet somehow it is right and proper that all that human big-city poop should be trucked out of Vancouver and deposited all over Nicola Valley’s farms, ranches, and forests. The use of “biosolids” in this way is not about recycling—it is simply the spreading of toxins throughout the environment. We worked so hard to perfect the water treatment systems in our cities, to separate the nasty chemicals from our waste water, and yet here we are recklessly putting that very toxic goulash back into the environment. This is short-sighted and reckless.

      There is risk involved with land application of biosolids. I have never met a sludge-industry worker who would deny this. Over time the burden of chemicals, pathogens, prions, and poisons will build up, and have a negative effect on the air, water, and land. The inherent danger in this process is even more dire for First Nations communities that depend on the forests and rivers for much of their diet and medicines. To jeopardize this traditional lifestyle in the name of expediency is verging on what some have called environmental racism.

      To ask the rural population to take all the risks involved with Vancouver’s (or any city’s) sewage disposal problem is unfair, unhealthy, and unsustainable. The sludge industry and the trucking industry are making huge profits off this process of toxin dispersal. The people of the Nicola Valley will no longer be subjected to this dirty, problematic solution to big-city sewage. Look towards the future, and push for a cleaner, sustainable method. Simply tossing this mess onto a neighbour’s property is not a solution. It is selfish and not very neighbourly!

      Comments

      5 Comments

      Pat Ray

      Jul 21, 2015 at 1:47pm

      Well said Don Vincent and sadly so true. Government always takes routes with no forethought as to the consequences to people and our environment. Like big business they pick the cheapest method of dealing with the issues - not necessarily the best method. Once they have signed on to the cheapest and not the best they do not want to listen to the science that tells them how wrong they are -- and if they DO hear it they change the regulations so they can keep doing what they have been doing and sell the faulty method to the public by stating they are operating within regulations. How often have we heard MOE and MOH say they are operating within the regulations? No one wants to looks at "new" science - its only been around for 15 years or less so it is not proven -- industry and government just do not choose to listen. If they were proactively listening they would be responding to the very very real threat of Prion Disease (causes mad cow disease, chronic wasting disease, possibly alzheimers) Prions have many ways to be spread one of which is spread using biosolids (sludge) on agricultural land, parks, crown land etc. - they call it a soil enhancement (fertilizer). I do not choose to eat food that has been contaminated by human feces, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, industrial waste -- to name but a few. Don't believe me -- do your own research and then act people - make government accountable.

      Rusty Buckets

      Jul 21, 2015 at 10:45pm

      Great Article! There are a few other things the public should know. I used to live in the Lower Mainland and chose to retire to a beautiful piece of property in the Nicola Valley in 2000. Little did I know of the possibility of large cities bio solids (toxic sewage) coming right next door to me, within 300 meters, piles as high and higher than my house without any notice. I have nothing to say about this apparently.....It's safe (so they say). Step outside and my eyes burn, my lungs burn and cannot enjoy a BBQ with Grandchildren or friends. These cities need to be respectful of others and deal with their own product. What Quality of life is this for us? This process needs to be updated. The OMRR guidelines are broken and need to be fixed. If this is all a safe practice then keep it in your own district and find a use for it. The Ranchlands have never needed this fertilizer in the last hundreds of years and managed just fine without it. I will not be supporting this practice and putting that food back on my table.

      Caroline Snyder

      Jul 22, 2015 at 11:20am

      Those EU countries that still land- apply sludge do so using the no-net-soil-degradation principle because they want to preserve their precious arable land for future generations. The US and Canada, on the other hand, believe that soils can be used as a repository of hazardous industrial waste until the treated land turns into a low level toxic waste dump. In the state of Georgia this has already happened.
      Alzheimer's and a number of other neuro-- degenerative diseases are prion diseases. Patients shed their bodily fluids into sewage treatment plants which cannot destroy their prions. So these pathogens collect in soil, are absorbed by plants, and, worse, animals ingesting these plants acquire prion disease. Yet neither the US EPA nor MOE have addressed this new serious concern linked to spreading sludge on land.
      Visit www.biosolidsfacts.org

      Robert Vincent

      Jul 22, 2015 at 12:59pm

      The only way I can see to get these politicians to change this disgusting practice is to get the issue tabled in front of a wide audience and shame them into taking action. Some program like "Fifth Estate" should be encouraged to publicize this on one of their TV programs - it is a very serious issue that threatens the well-being of many people in the Nicola Valley and should not be countenanced any longer.