Posted on 08/21/2007 7:23:29 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
(VICTORIA) - Harmful pesticides, pollutants and other chemicals from Asia may be landing on Vancouver Island as they float to the Arctic, says a professor at Royal Roads University.
Matt Dodd, head of the school's environmental science program, wants to install 20 specialized air-pollutant monitoring stations to see what levels of persistent organic pollutants and PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyls - register on the southern Island.
"We've done work in the Arctic and done work in China at the source, and now we are trying to find out if [pollution] stops in-between," said Dodd.
Dodd proposes to build the pollution catchers alongside existing Capital Regional District air-quality test stations at Royal Roads and Christopher Point near Race Rocks, at a cost of about $20,000. He said he's applied for government grants but has yet to receive approval.
The research could fill a key gap in data on how global pollutants affect land-based animals and enter the food chain in British Columbia.
The journey starts in countries such as China, Vietnam, Japan and Russia, where industrial byproducts and chemicals, such as chlordane and Myrex (used to kill termites) or DDT (a pesticide mostly banned by other countries), become airborne.
Research has shown the toxins ride wind currents to the Arctic, where they are stopped by extremely cold weather. Scientists know pollutants land and rise again along the way - a phenomenon called the "grasshopper effect."
Pollutants don't break down as they get into soil and water. They contaminate the food chain, starting with plants and plankton and, when eaten, end up in the fatty tissue of fish, caribou and eventually humans. Certain chemical pollutants are known to lower cognitive ability in humans, said Dodd. The breast milk of Inuit women is among the most heavily contaminated in the world, he said.
Much research has already been done on the Arctic impact. Dodd, along with a Royal Roads team, contributed to the Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report in the 1990s. Canada used that report to advocate for the eventual ban of the "dirty dozen" persistent organic pollutants at the Stockholm Convention in 2004.
Any research that adds to B.C. and Vancouver Island knowledge is valuable, said Christianne Wilhelmson, clean air and water director for the Georgia Strait Alliance environmental organization.
"It's hard to get people's attention that pollution globally will impact us locally because we can't see it," she said. "But we should be concerned that what other countries are doing globally affects us here."
Some research has already been done on global pollutants in the local marine environment.
Robie MacDonald, a research scientist at the Institute of Ocean Sciences in North Saanich, said one of the most compelling pieces of information suggesting the issue is anything but trivial is that West Coast killer whales are among the highest in PCB concentration.
"They are picking this stuff up," said MacDonald, who has done extensive research on the impact of global contaminants in the marine environment.
Dodd's proposed research would broaden the thin amount of data on land pollution, he said.
Other scientists have examined pollution levels in high-altitude regions, such as the Rocky Mountains, but nobody has looked at long-range transport on the ground-level, Dodd said.
"If we find the compounds here, and we determine they are not coming from here, it will encourage global policies for some of those countries still using these compounds to stop."
Royal Roads already has the equipment to analyse data from the proposed pollution catchers. It has also provided funding for a researcher, said Dodd.
If he can't get government approval, Dodd said, he'd welcome private funding.
Meanwhile, other Canadian scientists are working on a multinational real-time data network of air-testing stations in Canada, China, Vietnam, Japan, Russia and the United States.
But there is no testing slated for B.C., after plans for a site on Whistler Mountain fell through due to lack of funding, said Hayley Hung, an Environment Canada research scientist leading the International Polar Year Pollutants Travelling in the Air to the Arctic project.
She said Dodd's research could complement data expected from the multinational project.
"It will be helpful because we do need to understand the actual exchange process. If [pollutants] come in from the air, how were these chemicals trapped in the land system and how did they get into the soil and into the water and into the food chain? This process has been studied many times but in each location you see different phenomenon."
Canada ping. US Friend, do you work with this fellow?
Just as a point of interest, there have been several dozen studies on the question you raise, and it turns out that the paltry amount of nutrients and waste pumped into the strait is insignificant. As a matter of fact, you cannot even detect the presence of the outflow until you are within 30 feet of it on the bottom.
Nonetheless, due to the shouts, screams and cries of the uninformed masses like yourself and the enviro-weenies, we are about to WASTE about a billion and a half dollars just to shut the ignoramus’ mouths.
Good night, sir
Global dispersion of airborne polychlorinated biphenyls, chlordane, Myrex, DDT — why that’s nothing compared to the true evils of dumping CO2 into the air. If environmentalists were truly concerned about the welfare of the planet, where would they put their attention?
Then you should have no trouble directing me to one of them.
“...the paltry amount of nutrients and waste pumped into the strait is insignificant...”
Well, I wouldn’t call 120 million liters per day paltry or insignificant.
“...you cannot even detect the presence of the outflow until you are within 30 feet of it...”
Directly contradicted by the Victoria Capital Regional District’s own data. And don’t you think that currents or biological activity could transport pollutants or toxins?
“...due to the shouts, screams and cries of the uninformed masses like yourself and the enviro-weenies...”
You know, generally when one resorts to ad hominem attacks, it could be said their argument lacks, shall we say, veracity? All that aside, I’m somehow gratified when folks refrain from pouring their shit in a common resource like water, aren’t you?
Let me put it this way: I’ve actually dived to the outflow.
Here’s http://www.crd.bc.ca/wastewater/documents/tor_review_panel.pdf
one study.
Remember that the CRD is a group of small time civic bureaucrats who have only their own self aggrandizement and delusionary agendas in mind.
EG: The local reservoir was expanded so it’s big enough to support a city 3 times the size of Victoria, but we still have watering restrictions in place. Now CRD Water is whining that we aren’t using enough water, so they’re going to raise our rates.
If grouping you in with the uninformed Luddites who share your view is ad hominem, so be it.
Here’s an example of their mentality
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f0c_1179385159
The people who keep bringing this stuff up are the usual suspects: The Sierra Club, the Georgia Strait Alliance, etc.
Here’s a chapter on the “problem” by an associate prof at UVIC:
http://nisoftware.com/sewage-circus/chap10.html
Here’s the entire compilation of the Sewage Circus the above chapter came from.
http://nisoftware.com/sewage-circus/index.html
Enjoy your read and get back to me.
http://www.rstv.ca/marine-pollution-bulletin-edit/
I agree with the points that Don W made (excepting the ad hominem remarks).
It’s highly misleading to cite the volume of sewage, without any mention of the concentration. Over 95% of “raw” sewage is just water — water for flushing, water for washing clothes, water for showers, etc.
Unlike a lot of places, low-flush toilets aren’t mandated in Victoria — so most aren’t. If we had low-flush toilets, there would be a substantial drop in the volume of sewage — would anything have changed?
There is already primary treatment of sewage in Victoria. Well over 90% of the solids are removed before the sewage pumped out. In addition, there is a very effective program for removing heavy metals and other contaminants at source. For instance, car washes are required to filter and recycle their water.
The sewage is pumped into the strait, where very powerful tidal currents dilute it millions of times over. The sewage decomposes rapidly, and contributes useful nutrients to the ocean.
Perceptions trump reality nearly every time — and we know when we’ve been beaten. So, as Don W says, we’ll soon be spending gigabucks on an unnecessary treatment plant. (The estimated cost has already jumped to triple initial government estimates, and over 6 times what environmental lobby groups claimed the costs would be. The final costs are likely to be much higher.)
(BTW, to answer Don W’s question in another post — I don’t know any of the researchers mentioned in the article.)
Something I left out of my first reply ...
We have a very stringent Chief Medical Health Officer (CMHO) on the Island, who’s quite fond of Draconian measures to protect health. For instance, he’s responsible for laws against smoking in any public place — even outdoor patios (and more is coming). This CMHO recently studied the sewage outfall in Victoria for health hazards — and he concluded that there were none. This is coming from a person who next wants to make it illegal to smoke in public parks, or beaches — so, it’s a safe bet that if there were any detectable risk whatsoever, he’d be screaming for a treatment plant. He’d rather see the money spent on new health care facilities.
Ping
Ah yes, the illustrious Dr. Richard Stanwick, the control fiend to end all.
I’d like to apologize to both of you. I was a bit testy earlier in our conversation.
I did a bit more research, and learned that the strait is as deep as 980 feet, with an average flow speed of 1 foot per second. At 20 or so miles wide off the Victoria shore, that makes 120 million liters per day pretty insignificant.
Let’s say that the strait is “only” 200 feet deep (that’s the depth of the outfall. It’s also 105200 feet wide (20 miles), and that water is flowing by at 1 fps. Therefore, 105200*200=21,040,000 cubic feet per second.
120 million liters is 31.66 million gallons.
That’s 5.277 million cubic feet.
So, the total outflow from Victoria’s drains in 24 hours works out to about 1/4 of a second’s worth of flow past any given point in the strait.
That puts in into somewhat better perspective, I think.
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