Re: “Flush with success, Mr. Floatie retiring,” May 5.
Mr. Floatie’s retirement on Friday at a public ceremony in Seattle, hosted by the Canadian consul general, is highly revealing.
This event, which was attended by Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and area tourism representatives, demonstrates that the Capital Regional District’s new sewage system is being undertaken to placate Washington state, not because it is needed to protect our shared marine environment.
The rationale for the B.C. government’s 2006 order to the CRD to create a plan for land-based sewage treatment was refuted soon after by marine scientists, and the order has been without scientific merit ever since.
This is why scientists and public-health officials have repeatedly decried “a massive public expenditure for which no measurable benefit has been identified.”
It is kowtowing and tragic that the provincial and federal governments chose to force this unnecessary expenditure on CRD taxpayers instead of engaging the Americans in a constructive public debate on the scientific validity of our current marine-based sewage treatment system — an approach similar to San Diego’s, which has been endorsed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for decades.
Flushed, yes, but with injury after insult given the misapplication of funds and the needless environmental damage that will result from the project.
Patrick Wolfe
Victoria
