Ever since I was a child, I could never understand how badly we treated our water ways. We cover up and dump all our waste into these systems. We all think this is okay with no ramifications. We wonder why our salmon runs are in danger? We pay $30 million to have a report that says nothing with no conclusion.
Our federally-funded scientists have found out that all the animals living off our west coast now have 10 times more toxins in their bodies than we do.
The general public is all worried about the possibility of oil spills when we (each Canadian city) pumps millions of gallons of untreated water then we sit back and wonder why nothing is safe to eat anymore. Doctors are now predicting cancer rates to go up by 70 per cent. Is it from the possibility of oil spills? No, it's from what we do everyday. Flush all our household chemicals down the drain and forget about them.
Our family just moved to P.G. in October 2013. We bought a house in the Hart Highlands. Noted that most houses in the Hart are on septic systems. We are built on hundred's of feet of sand, the ideal location for septic systems, they will never fail unless 100 per cent neglected. Ask a plumber. The waste in this area will slowly be filtered and purified long before it makes it to the Fraser and Nechako Rivers.
We have now been told the city wants to replace an environmentally-friendly system [septic tanks] and put in a sewer system and pump the waste (untreated for all the chemicals) straight into the river system. This is going totally in the wrong direction if we want to save our fish, and probably ourselves.
From what I understand is happening in some cities south of the border where water is considered more valuable, they take their waste, pump it 10 miles up a dry valley, release it slowly and let it purify itself on the way back down to the river system. Very much like it is already happening in the Hart Highlands. I would love to spend my money on a system that is going to make this world a better place for my grandchildren.
Changing to sewer from septic at this point is clearly the wrong way to go. It would be contributing to a deeply-flawed system.
Time to get our heads out of the sand.
Peter Stewart
Prince George
