Vancouver Park Board targets untreated sewage in waterways

Vancouver's desire to be considered one of the greenest city's in the world appears to be threatened by its dirty secret — untreated sewage in its waterways.

On Monday night, the park board voted to request the City of Vancouver to prioritize sewer infrastructure plans within 10 years to improve water quality in Burrard Inlet, False Creek, the Fraser River and other waterways.

As the city hits prime warm weather, four beaches have been closed due to high E. Coli bacteria levels.

That list includes popular Sunset Beach in the West End ,Trout Lake in East Vancouver, Snug Cove near Bowen Island and Ambleside Beach in West Vancouver.

Resident Kate Jinaphant has noticed a stink near the city's iconic seawall.

"I know some people kayak and paddle board by Science World and the water there can sometimes be a bit smelly and you wouldn't think it would be like that here. Certain days in summer you can really smell the water just by walking around here."

The city discharges untreated waste into Vancouver waterways through combined sewage overflow outlets which include five overflow outlets into False Creek. 

With four beaches closed during this summer, critics argue the city's timeline to complete Vancouver's sewer separation plan is too far in the future.

That plan is based on the provincial government's environmental goal to separate the combined sewage systems by 2050.

NPA Park Board Commissioner John Coupar is urging action now and wants better water quality by 2029.

He says the problem isn't going away and will only get worse.

"Actually, we're at 50 per cent separated sewers in Vancouver, so that means half the city is still not separated between stormwater and sewer, so when there's heavy outflows we're pushing sewage into our local waterways."

Motion replaced by Green Party

Coupar had tabled a motion at Monday night's park board meeting but it was replaced by a motion introduced by Green Party Commissioner Camil Dumont.

The crux of Dumont's motion is not only to urge the city to encourage municipal, regional, provincial, and federal levels of government to support a plan for better water quality but for the city to prioritize a citywide rainwater management plan with more sustainable green infrastructure over 'traditional gray infrastructure'.

NPA Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung agrees Vancouver's sewage problem needs to be dealt with.

Kirby-Yung said recent reports show almost 674,000 cubic metres of raw sewage and runoff drained into False Creek at a combined sewer overflow point in 2017.

"The city has the ability to work more quickly than that," she said.

She is tabling a motion at Tuesday's council meeting to explore costs and options to fast-track Vancouver's sewage plan.

Mayor Kennedy Stewart said the current program seems justified when it comes to expenses like this, but if council passes the motion then the city's engineering department can look at the best way to move forward.