Canada turns nose from ugly secret: Harbors are filthy

July 4, 2001

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland - Embarrassed locals call it the ''bubble.'' Then quickly switch to politer subjects.

But Mayor Andy Wells doesn't mince words about the fount of filth burbling amid one of North America's most spectacular harbors.

''It's a shame and a disgrace,'' he said of the 29 million gallons of raw sewage that gush every day from underwater outfall pipes just a few yards from the main docking quay for cruise ships, cargo vessels, sailing craft, fishing boats, and other vessels calling on the historic seaport.

In this era of rarefied environmentalism, St. John's lacks even rudimentary sewage treatment facilities, relying on time and tides to do its dirty work.

The disgrace is not Newfoundland's alone, however.

Harbor pollution on a scale unseen outside the Third World is perhaps Canada's ugliest environmental secret. It has failed to create the combination of public disgust, outraged headlines, and federal wrath that fell upon Boston two decades ago, forcing the cleanup of its dirty harbor.

''Canada has this great green reputation ... but don't go near the water,'' said a Massachusetts harbor scientist, who did not wanted to be quoted by name for fear of offending Canadian colleagues. ''When it comes to clean harbors, our good neighbor is very, very bad.''

Today, not a single city in the United States deposits untreated waste directly into urban waterways, and most American harbors are dramatically cleaner than in decades past.

But at Canadian seaports from the North Atlantic to the Pacific shore, authorities turn a blind eye and a numb nose to more than 211 million gallons per day of human excrement, street crud, and industrial effluents - including 200 toxic pollutants, from engine oil to pesticides - pouring into the nation's common waters with no treatment whatsoever.

''It's ugly, it's smelly, it's unhealthy,'' said Beni Malone, co-director of the St. John's Harbor Atlantic Coastal Action Program, an environmental group. ''It's our national embarrassment, from sea to stinking sea.''

An additional 634 million gallons a day of sewage is pumped into Canadian harbors after preliminary filtration to remove condoms, dead rats, tampon applicators, and other unsightly refuse, but not hazardous bacteriological and chemical contaminants.

Among the worst offenders are three provincial capitals whose stunning maritime vistas draw tourists from around the world: St. John's; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Victoria, British Columbia. None has sewage treatment before the outfall pipes run the waste straight to the salt water.

Other famous ports - including Montreal; Vancouver; and pretty Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island - provide only minimal treatment, ''little more than settling and skimming off of the largest debris,'' according to a 1999 study by the Sierra Legal Defense Fund.

''It's perplexing and infuriating that a society as rich as Canada's should do so little on such a basic issue, one that American cities started taking seriously decades ago,'' said John Werring, staff scientist with the British Columbia-based group. ''There's a lack of political will.''

If nothing else, the foul gushings plainly violate the federal Fisheries Act, but no one in Ottawa seems keen on forcing municipalities to clean up their act. Crown prosecutors have backed away from charges brought against cities on behalf of fishermen's groups. Clean-water promises spill from the lips of national politicians at nearly the rate of sewage discharges, but - aside from the commissioning of study after study - nothing happens after the press conferences.

''It's a horrifying state of affairs. Every attempt we've made to protect the fisheries resource has been allowed to languish and die by an indifferent government,'' said David Lane of British Columbia's United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union.

Said Norm Doyle, a member of Parliament from Newfoundland: ''The reputation of Canada's water and sewer systems is very much in doubt these days. ... How many studies is enough?''

Canada's argument is that oceans are deep, tides are strong, and raw sewage doesn't pose any risk to human health as long as currents carry it to sea. More recently, federal Industry Minister Brian Tobin has implied that the only way Ottawa will become involved is if the most polluted municipalities come up with a single national cleanup plan. Translation: Look for years and perhaps decades of further government study to determine whether raw sewage dirties harbors and poisons fish.

Building a basic sewage treatment system for St. John's, population 100,000, would cost an estimated $60 million, according to Mayor Wells. The hard-pressed city, through imposition of a special tax, has come up with a third of the money, and the province of Newfoundland has pledged another third, but the federal government - which has jurisdiction over harbors - refuses, for now, to pony up the final $20 million.

With a few notorious exceptions, Canada's worst discharge problems are on the seaboards, not on lakes and rivers. And the problem of contaminated harbors appears worst in Atlantic Canada.

''Most Canadians assume that anything we pour down the sink or flush down the toilet gets treated before it reaches the water,'' said Malone of the St. John's action program. ''That's a reasonable assumption in an advanced nation, but - in Canada's case - it's wrong. In Atlantic Canada, only about 48 percent of communities have any sewage treatment.''

So St. John's is left with its ''bubble,'' the malodorous swirl marking the discharge pipes.

The captain of a cruise ship that occasionally calls upon the weather-battered city said curious passengers never fail to inquire about the burbling brown froth. Most seem to think it's a natural phenomenon. And he usually fibs rather than reveal the dirty truth.

''I tell them, `It's a tidal thing ... and look at all those sea gulls getting a grand feed,''' he admitted sheepishly. ''Who wants to be told their journey of a lifetime is to a toilet bowl?''

This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 7/2/2001.

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Does Canada deserve its "Green Bill of Health"?

They have spent so much of their $$ on Gov. Health Care and other bloated bureaucracies, that they have little left to deal with this tiny water problem.

Solution: More tax increases for Canada....(will they ever get tired of it??)

I liked this line...."Clean-water promises spill from the lips of national politicians at nearly the rate of sewage discharges"

The irony is that socialists and enviromentalists have become one in the same......yet they are the worst polluters. Go figure.

Can they figure out a way to blame this on Texas?