Under pressure from the province, the CRD needs to come up with a definitive plan to deal with the mounting quantity of dried biosolids pellets at Hartland. Biosolids are the byproduct of the region’s wastewater treatment processes. As of now, the CRD says…
Monday is Earth Day, and the theme this year is Planet vs. Plastics. This is timely, because Tuesday marks the start of a week-long session in Ottawa of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution. So this week, I begin to look at the plastics industry…
Dear Minister Heyman, We’re contacting you today on behalf of members of the Peninsula Biosolid Coalition (PBC), a community-based organization made up of regional environmental groups (Friends of Tod Creek, Creatively United for the Planet, Biosolid Free BC…), local... Read more
Josh Hylden speaks with Philippe Lucas, founder of Biosolid Free B.C. about what a group of Texas farmers has to do with Victoria. Listen here. Read more
What are biosolids? Biosolids are the dried residual sludge created by treating municipal wastewater. What are the main contaminants in biosolids? Heavy metals, micro plastics, pharmaceuticals, and so called forever chemicals that never break down. What is the thermal... Read more
PFAS chemicals are used in thousands of products aimed at making life easier. But the chemicals are now almost everywhere, including in human blood, and are being linked to severe health problems.
Dear CRD Chair, Board and staff, In light of the emerging details about the criminal investigation and civil suits against Synagro, we’re very concerned about the lack of CRD follow up on an emerging public health and environmental issue that seems to clearly... Read more
The company that produces biosolids at Hartland Landfill for the Capital Regional District is being sued by a group of Texas farmers. The farmers claim fertilizer made from a product of sewage treatment by Synagro Technologies’ operation…
The company that helps produce the Capital Regional District’s biosolids is being accused of its similar products medically harming Texas farmers and fatally impacting their animals. Synagro Technologies is the majority…
The CRD has been punting its management problem down Hartland Ave. for years. Pressure to resolve the region’s biosolids and other solid waste management plan has resurfaced as construction plans to increase capacity at the landfill are underway.
I’m writing today to express my disappointment and concerns about the recent CRD Open House on biosolids. Since the hosts opted to hide the number of participants, and since cameras, mikes and even the “chat” sidebar were disabled for participants, it was impossible... Read more
Would you knowingly eat food, drink water or breathe air that contains toxic chemicals and microplastics linked to cancer that are contained in sewage sludge from Victoria, BC’s wastewater treatment plant? Right now, forever chemicals, which true to their name last... Read more
The CRD wastewater treatment plant located at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt produces 10 tonnes of biosolids every day. These biosolids are the residual waste products which are piped to the Hartland Landfill where they are treated into a pellet. The BC Ministry of... Read more
WHAT IS COP28? COP is attended by industry stakeholders, politicians, researchers and scholars, Indigenous stakeholders, NGOs and other members of civil society. However, these groups are not given the same representation and privileges at COP events and negotiations.... Read more
Thank you to everyone who recently came out in support in person and online (watch here, starting at 42:22) to learn how individuals and community groups can speak to their neighbours and local governments about impactful and proven solutions to addressing climate... Read more
Residents throughout BC were recently asked to start conserving water. Bowinn Ma, our new minister of emergency management and climate readiness, said water supply is already extremely low in much of the province. All of Vancouver Island is now at Drought Level 5, the... Read more
My recent columns on the need to reduce inequality and social injustice by, among other things, increasing taxes on the rich and introducing or expanding wealth taxes, have elicited responses from some people along the lines of “you advocate stealing from the rich.”
We set out early in the morning. A wintry sun grudgingly appeared as we piled into the car. Mom and Dad, siblings and cousins made up our party. The roof-rack was securely in place on which to bring home the quarry: the perfect Christmas tree which we’ll flush... Read more
WHAT IS BLACK FRIDAY / CYBER MONDAY? The term “Black Friday” had been used in the mid 1800s to indicate a decline in gold prices that caused a market crash The term became associated with this time of year, right around American Thanksgiving, in the 1950s when... Read more
More than 40 years ago, in my major paper for my master’s degree, I sought to identify the fundamental principles underlying public health. I concluded there are two: ecological sanity and social justice. The pursuit of these principles has defined much of my work to create a healthier society ever since.
What is COP27? COP27 is the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference aka the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, the 27th COP conference since 1994 The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a treaty through which signing nations agreed to... Read more
On October 15th, candidates from all across BC will be elected to local councils, school districts, and regional districts. The urgency of the climate crisis is such that we need to elect a majority of climate champions on every council, in every regional district,... Read more
Rising concern about the impact of humanity on the environment led to the first UN conference on the environment in 1972. However, the issue of sustainability itself was barely touched on at the conference, with only one mention in the 80-page conference report. Nonetheless, publications prepared for the conference, such as Only One Earth and The Limits to Growth, as well as the conference itself, led to a much-heightened awareness of the challenges we faced.
Pacific Opera, in collaboration with Creatively United and the Gail O’Riordan Climate and the Arts Legacy Fund, are presenting a series of free outdoor performances in a variety of Greater Victoria parks during the month of June. Experience nature and live... Read more
The 10 year anniversary of Creatively United for the Planet’s first Earth Day event was celebrated with an incredible panel of youth voices that featured five young Canadian changemakers working in creative ways to help amplify youth voices…
A few weeks ago, before Russia invaded Ukraine and began committing war crimes that have shocked the world (in a way that should have but, to our shame, did not shock the world when Russia did the same thing in Chechnya and Syria), I was writing about inequality and health in the context of creating a wellbeing society.
We have just witnessed another Black Friday and Cyber Monday, an orgy of consumerism that kicks off the Christmas shopping binge. Every year, it seems, the consumption-fest gets worse, hyped by a marketplace that encourages greed and over-consumption because it desperately wants us to purchase more and more stuff.
Over 50 percent of the food waste in Canada is avoidable. This means that half of Canada’s food waste could have been saved and used to feed people. Not only is food waste a lost opportunity to feed someone, but rotting food in landfills emits methane and... Read more
It comes as a surprise to many people, including health-care professionals, that the health-care system has a large ecological footprint. But as I noted last week, if the global health-care system were a country, its carbon emissions would have made it the fifth-largest emitter on the planet, according to a 2019 report from Health Care Without Harm.
Courtesy of the Times Colonist Photo: A flare stack lights the sky from a refinery in Edmonton. The pathway to net zero is tough, but doable, argues Trevor Hancock, and brings many social, economic, ecological and health co-benefits, as reports from the... Read more
Modern, industrialized economics strives for endless growth. The social policies they promote lay waste to natural systems and exploit vulnerable populations. The result is global crises and disruptions. Renegade economist Kate Raworth brings a counter vision of human... Read more
On June 16, the CRD’s Environmental Services Committee passed a motion to request the Province to end land application of biosolids at Hartland. This motion will be submitted for approval to the full CRD Board on July 14. This motion was a result of public pressure... Read more
Esquimalt Council adopted a checkout bag bylaw this week. The bylaw will go into effect on August 13, 2021. After this date, there should be no free bags of any kind given by retailers in the municipality. Only paper and reusable bags will be allowed, and the retailer... Read more
On other matters related to the Landfill and Mount Work Park, MWC has become an active member of the Peninsula Biosolids Coalition–a group formed to oppose the spreading of biosolids at Hartland Landfill. Biosolids are a dried, processed product produced from sewage... Read more
The CRD’s revised Solid Waste Management Plan, modified after consultation with the public, including the Mount Work Coalition, was adopted by the CRD Board on May 12. Among the changes to the original Plan were the following (taken from the CRD document “Proposed... Read more
Much as I support circular and doughnut economy concepts, I am concerned that proponents often focus on recycling. Far more important is a conservation ethic which encourages overall resource efficiency. It is sometimes called “reduce, reuse and recycle”... Read more
Attaining carbon neutrality will have a profound impact on how we design communities and deal with waste. This webinar includes a number of pioneers who are creating innovative solutions to carbon neutrality and ways to…
It will come as no surprise to fans of the British satirical fantasy writer Tom Holt that economics has something to do with doughnuts. In his YouSpace series, a doughnut is the wormhole to an alternate reality, a parallel universe inhabited by elves, goblins, gnomes, dwarves and other fairytale characters who are ripe for exploitation.
Did you know that 73 acres of precious urban forests situated next to our Hartland Landfill are slated to be destroyed in order to provide a bigger hole for more garbage? In an era of climate crisis, we, the Dogwood South Island Regional Team (SIRT) feel this is... Read more
The disparity between food waste and food insecurity is a somber phenomenon. Estimates from the United Nations report a rise in global food production of up to 300 per cent over the past 50 years whereas the number of people experiencing food insecurity has risen by... Read more
Last week, I quoted from a Dec. 2 speech by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the state of the planet. It made for grim reading, but it is the reality we need to face. Mr. Guterres did not end on a pessimistic note, however. Instead, he pointed to many indications of opportunity and hope.
The following are a sampling of climate action-related updates, activities or reports from an active Fall 2020, both internationally and closer-to-home: Internationally: On December 2, 2020, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented a sobering State of the... Read more
I suggested last week that our society is remarkably immature in its approach to life. Central to this is an exaggerated form of individualism that has achieved a cult-like status. With that comes an acquisitive, greedy and selfish culture that really doesn’t care about other people or about nature.
A lot of what we acquire — all that “stuff’’ — ends up as solid waste, while inefficient energy use leads to high levels of energy waste. Not only does this contribute to excessive use of resources — with all the pollution and energy use associated with their extraction, processing and distribution — but it fills our landfills and pollutes our local environment or, if we export it, other people’s environment.
In 2019 Esquimalt council committed to a 30% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. To help meet this challenge, Esquimalt plans to eliminate all waste going to the Hartland Landfill by gasifying 91% of its waste stream which is not... Read more
“We are facing a disaster of unspoken suffering for enormous amounts of people, so please, treat the climate crisis like the acute crisis it is, and give us a future.” – Greta Thunberg For years, Guy Dauncey has tirelessly warned of the urgency of tackling the climate... Read more
Last week I discussed Prof. Rick Kool’s point that we live on an island — but we don’t act as if we do. Almost all our food, all of our fossil fuels, much of our electricity and much else is imported. The implication is that we should think about how to be more self-reliant.
I’m teaching CIVE 410 Solid Waste, Air, and Water Pollution this summer. I am hoping to connect to people working in solid waste, air, and water pollution who may be interested in sharing a short presentation about their work experience with the students.
Everyone wondered how we could possibly feature more than 20 presentations in less than two hours, but we did it! Inspiring stories of innovation, collaboration, community and creativity were shared with both a live and livestream audience worldwide around the theme... Read more
They say we are self-interested, we’re always out to win. Always individualistic, though it used to be a sin. They say we need free markets, the better to compete, and the economy will flourish if we only think of greed. This is Economics 101, the way it’s taught... Read more
