Help us Save our Orcas

Stop polluting our sensitive ecosystems by Dumping Raw Sewage and Contaminants; onto our Beaches, into Creeks, the Gorge Waterway / Victoria Harbour Watershed or any body of water.

Tell Mayor Barb Desjardins of The Township of Esquimalt to use the $17 MILLION DOLLARS of the McLoughlin Amenity Funds to fix Esquimalt's Leaky, Polluting Storm Sewers and Drains wisely, fix this disaster once and for all. 28years of engineering reports and very little accomplished

A Regional Strategy to Create a Clean, Healthy Aquatic Environment in The Capital Regional District, Township of Esquimalt, City of Victoria, District of Saanich, District of Oak Bay, please stop the dumping of raw sewage and contaminants onto our Beaches, into Creeks, the Gorge Waterway / Victoria Harbour Watershed or any body of water. Let's protect our sensitive aquatic ecosystems now.

We, the undersigned residents of Canada, draw the attention of the House of Commons in Parliament Assembled, Province of British Columbia Legislature Assembled, The Capital Regional District, City of Victoria, Township of Esquimalt, District of Saanich, District of Oak Bay to the following:

Whereas Sewage and Contaminants entering in our beaches, oceans, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water known as our Beaches, Creeks, Juan de Fuca, Gorge Waterway / Victoria Harbour Watershed pose a dire threat to our fisheries, sensitive ecosystems, marine mammals, wildlife, human health, communities, and individuals

And whereas raw sewage and contaminants make their way to these bodies of water in a variety of ways including stormwater/sewer outfalls; direct run-off/water and septic tank waste.

Therefore, we the undersigned call upon the Canadian federal government, the Province of British Columbia, The Capital Regional District, City of Victoria, Township of Esquimalt, District of Saanich, District of Oak Bay to work with the provinces, municipalities, and indigenous communities to develop a Capital Regional District strategy to combat storm sewage / septic tank runoff pollution in and around aquatic environments, which would include the following measures:

1. Regulations aimed at ending

a) Sewage and Contaminant discharge from storm sewer/water outfalls,

b) Urban runoff from roads, parking lots, commercial and industrial facilitates, and

c) Residential and industrial waterborne pollutants and sediments, from washing cars, redevelopment projects, landscaping, gardening and bad farming practice.

2. Create permanent, dedicated, and annual funding for;

a) Complete Restoration or Rebuilding our Storm Water / Sewage system to eliminate Storm Water Outfalls where possible,

b) Community-led projects to teach best management practices to prevent contaminants and sewage from entering beaches and other aquatic peripheries

c) Education and outreach campaigns to inform communities of the causes and negative impacts that sewage and contaminants have on the environment in and around all bodies of water, and

d) Technical training of local staff in the identification of spills and the appropriate response.

e) Formation of a Storm Water Utilities that deal with annual and long-term funding, planning, water quality, water quantity, elimination of stormwater outfalls where possible.

Mayor and Council City of Victoria

Mayor Lisa Helps

Councillor Marianne Alto

Councillor Chris Coleman

Councillor Ben Isitt

Councillor Jeremy Loveday

Councillor Margaret Lucas

Councillor Pamela Madoff

Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe

Councillor Geoff Young

Mayor and Council Township of Esquimalt

Mayor Barbara Desjardins

Councillor Olga Liberchuk

Councillor Tim Morrison

Councillor Susan Low

Councillor Beth Burton-Krahn

Councillor Meagan Brame

Councillor Lynda Hundleby

District of Oak Bay

Mayor Nils Jensen

Councillor Hazel Braithwaite

Councillor Tom Croft

Councillor Michelle Kirby

Councillor Kevin Murdoch

Councillor Tara Ney

Councillor Eric Zhelka

District of Saanich Council

Mayor Richard Atwell

Councillor Leif Wergeland

Councillor Dean Murdock

Councillor Vicki Sanders

Councillor Colin Plant

Councillor Judy Brownoff

Councillor Fred Haynes

Councillor Susan Brice

Councillor Karen Harper

Members of Parliament for Southern Vancouver Island

MP Elizabeth May SAANICH – GULF ISLANDS

MP Randall Garrison ESQUIMALT – JUAN DE FUCA

MP Murray Rankin Victoria

Members Legislative Assembly for Southern Vancouver Island

MLA Premier John Horgan Langford - Juan de Fuca

MLA Carole James Victoria-Beacon Hill

MLA Lana Popham Saanich South

MLA Rob Fleming Victoria-Swan Lake

MLA Mitizi Dean Esquimalt – Metchosin

Reference:

How much to fix the 390 known leaky Sewer Line, leaking Raw Sewage directly into the Gorge Waterway Victoria Harbour, and a guesstimate to fix the rest of Esquimalt's Leaky, Polluting Storm Sewers and Sanitary Sewers $70,000,000 +++ Millions

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dUONV0hhgEoXZ8Q4i3ztKOJ-BexWMR-A

The "pollution tracker" was put out by Vancouver Aquarium's Ocean Wise.

http://pollutiontracker.org/#Map|PWPVH3|sediment

If you click on Victoria's Harbour testing zones they don't look pretty.... would love your thoughts.

1) Re-inventing Rainwater Management in the Capital Region

Filed in: Healthy Watersheds and AirshedsLaw reformPollutionProvince-wideResearchSustainable Communities | February 24, 2010 by The Environmental Law Centre Society

Acting for the Veins of Life Watershed Society, the comprehensive report, Re-inventing Rainwater Management: Protecting Health and Restoring Nature in the Capital Region, documents the vast damage stormwater causes and then lays out a strategy for solving the problem.

http://www.elc.uvic.ca/publications/stormwater-report/

2) The Capital Regional District, of Greater Victoria, Stormwater / Storm sewer water quality monitoring reports published since 1993

https://www.crd.bc.ca/about/document-library/Documents/annual-reports/environmental-protection/integrated-watershed-management/core-area

3) Green Infrastructure and Issues in Managing

Urban Stormwater

Claudia Copeland

Specialist in Resources and Environmental Policy

May 2, 2016

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43131.pdf

4) Transport Canada reports on the condition of our Harbour, several reports on what is being discharged into our Victoria Harbour / Gorge Waterway, Over a dozen reports, Shocking that nothings being done.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BN5dHfjhKvsdO1chRs_YVxGYd-blWRCu

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Thank you to Adrian Raeside for usage of this classic http://raesidecartoon.com/vault/whale-killing/ been one of my Favorites for years.