District investigating damage caused by 130-cubic metre sewage spill in Victoria area

A ruptured pipe at a Victoria-area landfill caused some sewage to leak into a nearby regional park, but the majority of the spill was contained, a district official says.

However, the exact environmental impact remains to be seen, according to Elizabeth Scott, deputy project director for the Capital Regional District (CRD) wastewater project. 

Scott told CBC on Friday that the district was dealing with 130 cubic metres of sewage that leaked at the Hartland Landfill and into Mount Work Regional Park on Oct. 13.

The spill occurred when a pipe running from a new sewage treatment facility that's currently under construction ruptured, Scott said. She said district staff will now be monitoring the landfill and park for signs of environmental damage.

"We are confident this will not happen again but we are completing a full incident investigation," said Scott on CBC's All Points West.

The new facility, known as the Residuals Treatment Facility, is part of the CRD's Wastewater Treatment Project and is currently in its testing phase. It's part of a nearly $800-million sewage treatment upgrade for Greater Victoria.

Scott said the faulty pipe responsible for the spill is a temporary one and that the permanent pipe will have safety valves and automatic monitoring that will prevent future incidents.

The spill site is located close to Durrance Lake, which Scott said was not contaminated. She said the majority of the sewage was contained at the landfill, while some got into the park through a culvert. 

"No sewage has made it into [the] lake and we are confident that none will," she said.

Scott said staff will continuously test ground samples during cleanup to monitor for possible long-term environmental damage.

Signs have been put up in Mount Work Regional Park advising visitors to avoid the area where the spill occurred, but according to the CRD, the incident did not pose a risk to public health.

The construction of Victoria's first wastewater treatment facility began in 2017 and has been heralded as long overdue by some and dismissed as unnecessary by others.

The region is the last major coastal community in North America still disposing of untreated sewage by pumping it into the marine environment, according to the local government.

Federal regulations introduced in 2012 mean the CRD — which is comprised of three electoral areas and 13 municipalities including Victoria, Saanich and Esquimalt — must have a treatment plant up and running by the end of 2020.

Scott says the CRD is on track to make that deadline.