Gonzales Blue Drain
Another post of Gonzales Bay during blue hour a couple of weeks ago. And lo and behold, it has a storm drain visible at lower tides. Now, this is not nearly such a compelling drain as the one I have been documenting in Ross Bay, but nice to know there is one so close to home if I need to nip out quickly one day.
Too bad I did not catch a bit of the moon in these photos, but the sand and footprints are nice.
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Canon 5D MkII, Nikkor-N 24mm/f2.8 lens, ISO400, f2.8, handheld, 2 brackets each at 1/60th, 1/15th
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burnt embers 
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I have no opinion whatsoever on this controversial project, but I DO have an opinion on the photographs here. I love ’em. Great tones here, Ehpem, what a beautiful place we find ourselves living in… even if Mr. Floatie is omnipresent.
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You are wise to shy away from sewage talk Toad. It can get heated, and smelly. I am glad you like these shots – less subtle, but the HDR works for me particularly well on the first one.
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Blue velvet sand.
It is hard to believe in this day in age – in Canada! – we are still dumping raw sewage into our oceans, lakes, rivers etc. The same happens here in extreme weather conditions – relatively often. We are not kind to our earth.
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Hi Karen, it is hard to believe. Though if you read the scientists reports, they are pretty clear that it is doing little damage at all because of the particular conditions into which it is discharged. It’s just has really bad optics.
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http://www.rstv.ca/david-andersons-to-victoria-ci refers to opinion of 10 uvic marine scientists who are unlikely to be paid lackeys any more than Anderson himself, former federal govt minister who did a good job for us as i recall, but i didnt know about mr floatie i must admit!
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Well, Mr. Floatie would point out that some of those marine scientists have been acting as consultants on this matter, accepting funding for their opinions, so they are paid for their opinions, even if not lackeys. They are not listed on that link, but there is one (who may not one Anderson was referring to for all I know) that was doing this work in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s – not sure if he is even still alive.
I don’t believe that academics are different from anyone else – there are some among them that lack sufficient conscience, just like in the rest of society. And while they have good jobs that mean they do not have rely on consulting funds to get by, they can get used to the extra money pretty quickly, just like consultants.
But, that is beside the point. I have not actually stated an opinion as to whether I think the treatment is a good plan or not. I know that it is going to hurt me financially for several years, I know that diluted sewage blooms upwell to the surface off shore from time to time, and that sewage contains a lot of stuff that can’t be good for any ecosystem – the things people flush down their sinks and toilets that should be going to hazardous waste companies, old medicines, heavy metals, and so on. That is part of the reason that the government scientists in the Ministry of Environment concluded that they needed to order the Municipalities to clean up their act. Mind you that toxic component would also end up in the solid extracts from the sewage if treated, and would still have to go somewhere – preferably not onto farm land.
It is not an easy matter to resolve, and a large part of the problem has nothing to do with science – it is public perception, the perceptions of potential tourists in Washington, of the environmentally minded of the don’t-think-much-about-contrary-science-variety, and many other opinions, often tied to the wallets of those that have to pay for it. Mostly it is about public perception which is by definition about politics and thus to a large degree irrational. David Anderson is a former politician, no longer an active one. While he has taken many principled environmental stands over his career, he is no longer seeking votes. Though, it was interesting in the recent by-election that the candidates who swore to kill the sewage treatment plan (led by the party which Anderson served for decades) got the fewest votes.
So science, whether influenced by paymasters or not, is pretty much beside the point. Not a good thing, but the way that it is.
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I really enjoy looking at these two photographs (despite them being blue,LOL). The colors are brilliantly beautiful, nice mood… Yes!
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Thank you Joseph. I played with these in black and white, and while nice, the top one really asks to keep that colour in the upper left, so colour they are. For now.
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Gee, there seems to be no shortage of photogenic storm drains in your area. Ours all look like giant metal tubing. And yours are nicely lit. too.
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Thanks Ken! Ours are all old and rickety and in need of replacing with giant metal tubing I expect. I am not even sure if this one is still active. It looks as if many years of wave carried logs have knocked the corners off it.
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I just want to check, when you say “storm drain”, does that mean it takes only surface water, or does it take sewage when the foul network is surcharged? Just in case I ever visit and want to take a swim.
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Hi Patrick – it is surface water only the environmental health officers will be glad to know. At one time there were eccentric connections and so on and after heavy rainfalls there was sewage overflow as well and some eccentric or broken connections. But to a large degree that has been fixed. Except perhaps after extreme weather events
However, all sewage IS pumped out to sea not far from here, pretty much untreated. It is a dirty thing but the local university scientists and consultants say that the local conditions, depth of water, amount of natural flushing and so on disperse the sewage so that it is not an environmental hazard. Most people don’t believe this and there is now an initiative to correct the situation. Which means a huge project redoing the sewage infrastructure all over Greater Victoria and sending it to a new facility. A political hot potato because it will raise each household’s annual property taxes by between $232 and $391, depending on the municipality. And we know about cost overruns and so on. Sadly, I am in the highest cost municipality.
Anyway, it has all been approved and is slowly getting underway. The first signs are that they are running cameras through all the storm water networks looking for problems and ensuring that there are no sewage inputs and so on. Side effect of that is that they dug a big hole in my and my neighbours front yard a few months ago because the found the pipes had collapsed. However, what the new system won’t fix is all the chemical contamination from the surface of the city going onto the beaches.
On the more bizarre fringes of this whole dirty story was the creation of “Mr. Floatie”, a sewage treatment advocate who dressed up in a padded costume as a giant turd and made his presence known at political rallies and to the tourists downtown and in other inconvenient and embarrassing places. Something tells me you might quite like that part of the story.
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That’s a very interesting tale. Reminds me of my astonishment when I moved up to Argyll to find very similar situations with raw outfalls to the sea. Fortunately, EU directives force better standards and upgrades have generally now been put in place.
And, yes, I love “Mr Floatie”!
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Same thing here – higher levels of government stepped in and forced the issue – the local government would never have done so. In fact I suspect they were waiting for an order from on high so they had someone to blame.
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“most people don’t believe this”. no, they would rather listen to environmental pressure groups. Its all become politicized and the scientific evidence has been swept aside.
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Awww c’mon, Mr. Floatie is a much better source of information than some consulting scientist beholden to his client! Besides that, he’s kind of cute, in a lumpy brown sort of way.
(Just for clarity, this would be by way of a ‘quote’ from those that can’t be bothered to look at the science).
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