This story is part of Uytae Lee’s Stories About Here, an original series with the CBC Creator Network. You can watch every episode of this series on CBC Gem.
Last summer, three Metro Vancouver beaches were closed to swimmers after high levels of E. coli were detected in the water.
And this is a pretty common occurrence. Almost every year, beaches, lakes, and other water bodies are closed to swimming across Canada because there is fecal matter mixed into the water. Our poop!
So how did that poop get there?
Well, it’s because of something called the combined sewer and stormwater system.
Mixing sewage with stormwater
When you flush your stuff, it flows into a network of sewage pipes that lead to a sewage treatment plant where it is cleaned and treated before the remaining water is dumped into the ocean.
Pretty straightforward right?
But in a combined sewer and stormwater system, sewage isn’t the only thing that goes into those pipes. There’s also stormwater.
In a combined sewer and stormwater system, city infrastructure can quickly become overwhelmed during major rainfall events. (Stories About Here)
In a combined system, rain that hits a hard surface like asphalt, glass or concrete also flows into our sewage system to be cleaned and treated.
And this is where we find the root of this problem: The amount of sewage flowing in a city at any given time is pretty consistent, but the amount of rainwater a city receives fluctuates wildly. So when there’s a bad rainstorm, there ends up being far too much water flowing through our pipes for the sewage treatment plant to handle.
The result? All the excess stormwater and sewage overflows into a nearby body of water, whether it’s a stream, lake, or beach.
Grey and green infrastructure
This combined system has historically been the system of choice for most older cities in North America, which means this is a problem pretty much everywhere.
Well, there are many different solutions and they roughly fall into two categories: Grey infrastructure and green infrastructure.
“Grey Infrastructure” is a more heavy-duty approach to dealing with excess stormwater. One example is in Tokyo, where the city has constructed enormous underground caves to hold excess liquid during typhoon season.
Another popular solution is to completely separate stormwater and sewage into different pipe networks, so sewage can be taken to sewage treatment plants, while stormwater can just flow out into the ocean.
But these solutions are incredibly complicated, expensive and don’t always work. And that’s where green infrastructure comes in.
The process of separating pipes in Vancouver into separate stormwater and sewage systems has been ongoing since the 1970s and will take years to complete. (Stories About Here/City of Vancouver)
Easier being green?
Out in the wild, there are no pipes. When it rains, water is absorbed into the ground or pooled into streams and rivers that flow into lakes and oceans.
But this approach isn’t perfect, either. Green infrastructure doesn’t make sense everywhere and the science behind it is admittedly less predictable than simply directing water into a pipe.
What I’ve really come to understand is it will take many different solutions working together to manage our sewage and stormwater.
And I do have hope, that if we keep our eyes on the prize, one day, maybe — just maybe — we’ll finally stop dumping literal sewage into the ocean.
Stories About Here is an original series with the CBC Creator Network that explores the urban planning challenges that communities across Canada face today. In each episode we dig into the often overlooked issues in our own backyards — whether it’s the shortage of public bathrooms, sewage leaking into the water, or the bureaucratic roots of the housing crisis. Through it all, we hope to inspire people to become better informed and engaged members of their communities.
You can watch every episode of this series on CBC Gem.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
