I checked with Darryl and there is was no customer equipment left in the shop when he closed.
Vancouver Island Divers
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I checked with Darryl and there was no customer equipment left in the shop.
Soakedlontra
Contributor
Hello Folks!
I have just come back from a long week-end diving trip to Victoria.
A couple of friends of mine mentioned to me that the city of Victoria does not have sewage treatment plants and dumps raw sewage into the ocean.
When I decided to dive at Ogden Point I was excited about diving from a breakwater (I am a novice diver) with a dive shop and cafe' nearby and I did not think much of what those people told me.
During the dive I though the water was OK and felt 'safe' from exposing myself to nasty bacteria etc.
Now I am writing a story about my diving experiences in Vancouver Island and I have began to think harder about this issue of dumped raw sewage along that stretch of the island coast.
Betty Pratt-Johnson in her "151 Dives in protected waters of British Columbia and Washington State" did include this dive site in her book without mentioning the possibility of immersing yourself into a sea of floating human waste, chemicals of all sorts and heavy metals.
What are your feelings about it?
I have just come back from a long week-end diving trip to Victoria.
A couple of friends of mine mentioned to me that the city of Victoria does not have sewage treatment plants and dumps raw sewage into the ocean.
When I decided to dive at Ogden Point I was excited about diving from a breakwater (I am a novice diver) with a dive shop and cafe' nearby and I did not think much of what those people told me.
During the dive I though the water was OK and felt 'safe' from exposing myself to nasty bacteria etc.
Now I am writing a story about my diving experiences in Vancouver Island and I have began to think harder about this issue of dumped raw sewage along that stretch of the island coast.
Betty Pratt-Johnson in her "151 Dives in protected waters of British Columbia and Washington State" did include this dive site in her book without mentioning the possibility of immersing yourself into a sea of floating human waste, chemicals of all sorts and heavy metals.
What are your feelings about it?
My feeling is if you are going to post inflammatory statements about a city we know and love you should move this post to the whine and cheese forum and keep the politics out of it.
Please take this bull$**** somewhere else
Soakedlontra
Contributor
Hello Wedivebc,
First of all I don't think my post is 'inflammatory' or ‘political’. When I posted it I did not mean to make you or any other people in this forum upset. Please accept my apology.
I like Victoria very much too, that’s why my buddy and I decided to go there for our dive vacation. I have been there a couple of times. The people have always been very friendly and the city is very clean, so I was surprised to learn that they don’t have sewage treatment.
I also did not want to point a finger and make accusations of any kind to anybody in this forum. My purpose was not to make assertions, but to ask questions and start a discussion so that I might learn something. I admit that I used a few terms that may be somewhat provocative, but I was trying to start a discussion. I know that the topic is controversial but that doesn't mean that we cannot talk about it in a civil manner even with disagreements.
The tone of your response leads me to believe that you may have strong feelings about this subject, but in fact you say nothing about the topic itself. As a new diver, I’m always trying to learn from those with more experience, and I really would like to know what you, Webdivebc, have to say about the subject of water quality in the Victoria area. If this is not the place for that topic, fair enough, let’s take it somewhere else. But I have found that when people re-direct the discussion instead of meeting an argument head-on, it often means that they don’t really have a solid basis for their beliefs.
Best regards
First of all I don't think my post is 'inflammatory' or ‘political’. When I posted it I did not mean to make you or any other people in this forum upset. Please accept my apology.
I like Victoria very much too, that’s why my buddy and I decided to go there for our dive vacation. I have been there a couple of times. The people have always been very friendly and the city is very clean, so I was surprised to learn that they don’t have sewage treatment.
I also did not want to point a finger and make accusations of any kind to anybody in this forum. My purpose was not to make assertions, but to ask questions and start a discussion so that I might learn something. I admit that I used a few terms that may be somewhat provocative, but I was trying to start a discussion. I know that the topic is controversial but that doesn't mean that we cannot talk about it in a civil manner even with disagreements.
The tone of your response leads me to believe that you may have strong feelings about this subject, but in fact you say nothing about the topic itself. As a new diver, I’m always trying to learn from those with more experience, and I really would like to know what you, Webdivebc, have to say about the subject of water quality in the Victoria area. If this is not the place for that topic, fair enough, let’s take it somewhere else. But I have found that when people re-direct the discussion instead of meeting an argument head-on, it often means that they don’t really have a solid basis for their beliefs.
Best regards
cfenton
Contributor
From my understanding it is true that Victoria is the only major city in Canada that dumps raw sewage directly into the ocean without any secondary treatment. The sewage does have primary treatment - it is run through a screen to remove solids. It is also true that human waste is by no means the only waste that ends up in any cities sewage. It can hardly be argued that this is not a source of pollution. There are two sewage outfall pipes and both are approximately a kilometer off shore in the straight of Juan de Fuca which has very strong currents. Therefore the idea that you have to worry about swimming in sewage at Ogden Point is nothing short of ridiculous. Having said that, just because the sewage is washed away into the Pacific on a daily basis - and does not have any major affect on the immediate coastal waters of Victoria - doesn't change the fact that the city is polluting the world's oceans. In my opinion: a environmental concern, yes; and diving concern, no.
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cfenton
Contributor
My feeling is if you are going to post inflammatory statements about a city we know and love you should move this post to the whine and cheese forum and keep the politics out of it.
Please take this bull$**** somewhere else
I have to agree. Soakedlontra you should probably do your research before making stupid comments like this about a cities dive sites. Besides, what is the point of posting the identical text in two different threads?
Darnold9999
Contributor
Actually 3 different threads got this treatment. While the OP says that this is to "generate a discussion" it actually comes across as an attack to me.
In most cases I would agree that treating sewage before dumping it in the ocean is a good idea, Victoria is a bit of a special case however. At least one of the outflow pipes are located in an extremly high current point off Clover Point. I believe the other is in a similar location. The outflow is flushed several times daily and diluted into what is essentially the open ocean. The result is a low impact, low cost option for sewage disposal. Is there pollution, of course - nobody would argue that there wasn't. However, compare that solution with the impact of a treatment plant. Such a plant also generates pollution. Building it, running it, maintaining it and disposing of the end product all have an impact on the environment. In this particular case you may end up spending scarce resources for no, or minimal, net improvement to the environment.
This issue is not as simple as some would have you believe. I have not looked at the figures for a while, but when the outfalls were last extended, I did live in Victoria and it made no sense at all to build a treatment plant. The resources required to build and maintain such a plant did not justify the very marginal net improvement to the environment. In short there were better places to spend the money. For example dealing with the Hartland Road landfill where the city's solid wastes end up. This may have changed since I last lived in town, but I doubt it. Victoria is a small city with fairly low growth rate.
In most cases I would agree that treating sewage before dumping it in the ocean is a good idea, Victoria is a bit of a special case however. At least one of the outflow pipes are located in an extremly high current point off Clover Point. I believe the other is in a similar location. The outflow is flushed several times daily and diluted into what is essentially the open ocean. The result is a low impact, low cost option for sewage disposal. Is there pollution, of course - nobody would argue that there wasn't. However, compare that solution with the impact of a treatment plant. Such a plant also generates pollution. Building it, running it, maintaining it and disposing of the end product all have an impact on the environment. In this particular case you may end up spending scarce resources for no, or minimal, net improvement to the environment.
This issue is not as simple as some would have you believe. I have not looked at the figures for a while, but when the outfalls were last extended, I did live in Victoria and it made no sense at all to build a treatment plant. The resources required to build and maintain such a plant did not justify the very marginal net improvement to the environment. In short there were better places to spend the money. For example dealing with the Hartland Road landfill where the city's solid wastes end up. This may have changed since I last lived in town, but I doubt it. Victoria is a small city with fairly low growth rate.
asmackofjellyfish
Registered
SoakedIontra,
It seems you have opened up a can of worms here. I'm not sure that this is the appropriate location for this question/discussion, as it is obvious the only answers that the locals are able to give are that they have never been sick after diving at Ogden Point, and that they have an opinion one way or the other about the release of raw sewage. You can appreciate that any potential visitors to Victoria reading this might be put off from visiting this area, which is quite frankly, a little upsetting to me as well.
I hope that if you are going to publish an article about this, you don't rely on the personal opinions of the scubaboarders who frequent this board, but rather confirm whether the impact to the water is sufficient to harm scuba divers and humans with a primary source. If you check with the Capital Regional District, I'm sure you will find that the impact to sea water in the area, including at Ogden Point, is not miniscule. In the 3 minutes I spent looking I discovered that the outflows are actually at 60+ meters deep, and are located more than 1000 meters off shore.
asmackofjellyfish
It seems you have opened up a can of worms here. I'm not sure that this is the appropriate location for this question/discussion, as it is obvious the only answers that the locals are able to give are that they have never been sick after diving at Ogden Point, and that they have an opinion one way or the other about the release of raw sewage. You can appreciate that any potential visitors to Victoria reading this might be put off from visiting this area, which is quite frankly, a little upsetting to me as well.
I hope that if you are going to publish an article about this, you don't rely on the personal opinions of the scubaboarders who frequent this board, but rather confirm whether the impact to the water is sufficient to harm scuba divers and humans with a primary source. If you check with the Capital Regional District, I'm sure you will find that the impact to sea water in the area, including at Ogden Point, is not miniscule. In the 3 minutes I spent looking I discovered that the outflows are actually at 60+ meters deep, and are located more than 1000 meters off shore.
asmackofjellyfish
Soakedlontra
Contributor
Sorry if I have upset any of you who replied to my post. It was definitively not my intention to do so.
Regarding posting my post in several threads I did it for the simple reason of reaching as many divers as possible. I am new to blogging so I guess I have been a bit naive and I did not realize that it was not a good thing to do.
I appreciate your input. If you feel uncomfortable to keep this thread on the board then notify the moderator and he/she will get rid of it.
The article that I mentioned in one of my earlier posts has got nothing to do with either Scuba Board or the issue discussed in this thread.
Regarding posting my post in several threads I did it for the simple reason of reaching as many divers as possible. I am new to blogging so I guess I have been a bit naive and I did not realize that it was not a good thing to do.
I appreciate your input. If you feel uncomfortable to keep this thread on the board then notify the moderator and he/she will get rid of it.
The article that I mentioned in one of my earlier posts has got nothing to do with either Scuba Board or the issue discussed in this thread.
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