Ontario Environment Minister Jeff Yurek, shown at Queen's Park in 2018. Last week, Yurek introduced a bill to pause provincial review of a sewage project north of Toronto. File photo by Alex Tétreault
Sometimes I am a bit envious of those who have children; but as an environmentalist, I am also rather proud that I have none.. and a bit relieved, considering the limited progress humanity is making with regards to climate change.
We need new ways of treating our waste -- ways that do not pollute our precious and limited water resources.
This debate has been going on for more than a decade. Why isn't there a new answer, a new choice besides A or B?
Both previous comments are spot on. Humanity is a plague on the earth and we can no longer "solve" our human excrement problem by diverting it; as the Victorian sewage system did by dumping it into the Thames. Have we not managed to advance beyond that out of sight/smell, out of mindset? Of course we can afford to do the necessary research and support the innovations turning wastewater into potable water as other jurisdictions have.
California with its semi perpetual state of drought has been forced to recycle its wastewater. It is only exploitative capitalism that prevents us from pursuing the "common good". Developers want to wreak their profit making on the cheap. Make them pay for their destructive process; make them meet conditions for building permits that solve this crisis of human waste and human greed.
Modern tertiary sewage treatment must be the standard. The city of Victoria, BC, just completed their plant and it's made a world of difference. From raw to tertiary is a huge leap. So is the very effective odour control through a closed loop. I would go one step further and have the clear, pathogen-free effluent drain into a series of artificial wetlands instead of directly into the ocean or a lake.
The plant removes and treats the biosolids which are stored at a solid waste facility. Sadly, the nutrient-rich material is trucked and barged off Vancouver Island and then burned at the LaFarge cement plant in Metro Vancouver, therein releasing GHGs directly into the airshed. It would be far better to mix the biosolids with sawdust and finely ground wood waste then add cornstarch as a "glue" for hydro-mulching forest clear cuts and large road, transmission corridor and park landscape projects. The material can also be pelletized, sold and transported in bulk dry form.
The bit about the vote-rich 905 area is exactly what it's all about. Most municipal and provincial politicians (red or blue, doesn't matter) in that area receive substantial campaign contributions from donors linked to sprawl friendly house builders and road construction companies.
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