Is Dallas As Bad A Sewage Polluter As Victoria British Columbia?

Way back late in the last century a scandal erupted in the Pacific Northwest, with that scandal being an issue between Washington and British Columbia over some extremely disgusting, bad behavior by the British Columbia provincial capital of Victoria.

Until the scandal erupted most Washingtonians were not aware of the fact that the city of Victoria pumped its raw sewage, untreated, into the Straits of Juan de Fuca, that being the body of water which separates Washington from Canada.

British Columbia officials claimed that the tidal action of fast moving currents treated the raw sewage, naturally.

However, Washingtonians, who had witnessed the large plume of discolored water that frequently appeared from  the area  of Victoria's sewer pipes, thought differently.

Starting back  in the 1960s Washington sewage treatment had elevated to what is known as tertiary treatment. Which basically means the treated sewage is restored to a safe water state before winding up back in Puget Sound. The waters of Washington, both the rivers and the Sound, soon were no longer polluted. This had multiple benefits, such as salmon returning to Lake Washington.

So, you can see why it grated on the nerves of the people of Washington to learn that the capital of British Columbia was shooting raw sewage into the straits through which salmon swam on their way to Washington rivers.

All these years later I believe Victoria, despite promises to modernize, still releases sewage into the straits which has not been cleaned up to American standards.

Meanwhile in Texas.

I was vaguely aware that there was an issue in Dallas regarding the south part of town not having full access to the town's sewer lines.

A recent article in the Dallas Observer titled COUNCIL GIVES MONEY TO A MALL, BUT WON'T SPEND ON SEWERS. THAT'S SO DALLAS sort of shocked me with the realization that Dallas is pretty much almost as bad as the Canadian town of Victoria.

Two blurbs from the article...

Pitre (pronounced PEEtree) owns 120-plus acres of land near the new University of North Texas' southeast Dallas campus. He is one of several black land-owners in that area who have been campaigning for years — unsuccessfully so far — to get the city to extend sewer service to their part of the city.

But the DART station at UNT will be on a septic tank, because Dallas still has not extended a sewer main close enough to that location for DART or any other developer to be able to afford to connect to it. Recently, when the city rebuilt a major thoroughfare next to the campus —  an ideal time to put in sewer cheaply because the road was torn up anyway — the city declined to do so.

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I had no idea that a large American city existed without modern sewage treatment covering a large part of the town.

South Dallas is sewer line free?

Does this mean Fair Park is not connected to a sewer line?

Are parts of Fort Worth similarly backward?

Is that why the majority of Fort Worth parks are serviced by outhouses rather than modern restroom facilities?

Is the South Dallas zone, which is not connected to a sewer line, solely dependent on septic tanks? Or do a lot of people have outhouses in their backyards?

What does it do to the ground water to have so many septic tanks in a concentrated area?

Why would Dallas spend money on extremely cool futuristic looking bridges when a large portion of the town does not have modern plumbing?

Victoria, British Columbia took a big hit, tourist-wise, after the Sewagegate Scandal erupted. Would Dallas take a similar hit, tourist-wise, if it became known, nationally, and internationally, that a large part of the town is cut off from the type amenity one expects in a modern city?

Very perplexing.....

This Coming Thursday Rockin' the Green Trinity River's Happy Hour Inner Tubing Party

The ad on the left, advertising the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Rockin' the River Live on the Trinity Inner Tube Happy Hour is in this week's Fort Worth Weekly.

The River Rockin' takes place the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the summer months of June, July and August.

This means this coming Thursday is another Trinity River Inner Tubing Happy Hour day.

I saw the Trinity River yesterday as I drove over the bridge heading east on Randol Mill Road. The river has turned a very interesting shade of green.

Did the 2nd Rockin' the River Inner Tubing Happy Hour see an increase or decrease in the number of floaters?

Is the Trinity River turning green due to the water warming up, due to the HOT weather, causing algae and other bad stuff to grow?

You reading this in the Pacific Northwest and wondering why anyone would have concerns about inner tubing in a river, well, the Trinity River is not like pristine Pacific Northwest rivers. It is more like a ditch or a slough.

In the Pacific Northwest context, going inner tubing in the Trinity River would be like going inner tubing in the Straits of Juan de Fuca off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia. With the Straits of Juan de Fuca being a waterway in which Victoria pumps raw, untreated sewage.

However, if you went inner tubing in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, off the coast of Victoria, the polluted water would be your only thing to look out for. You would not be sharing the water with scary fish like alligator gar. Or actual alligators. Or snapping turtles. Or snakes like water moccasins.

What is the reason the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has added Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats to its vision? How much do the Happy Hours cost? Is the cost being covered completely by the sponsors?

Are J.D. Granger and his mom, Kay, going to be in the Trinity River on Thursday? If not, why not?

What Does Victoria British Columbia Raw Sewage Pollution Have To Do With Fort Worth?

A few days ago I referenced a Washington State issue that I thought had been resolved. That issue being the capital of British Columbia, Victoria, and its suburbs using the Strait of Juan de Fuca, that being the body of water between Vancouver Island and Washington, as an open sewer.

That's right, our good friends to the north pump their raw sewage into pristine ocean water.

This has upset people for, well, decades. I thought, even before I moved to Texas, that British Columbia had agreed to fix this.

Today I learned the raw sewage dumping has gotten worse. But, now, British Columbia is, finally, planning to fix this very bad Canadian behavior.

So, how did this change come about? Was it fear of International Embarrassment during the upcoming Vancouver Winter Olympics? Well, that is part of it.

But the bigger reason B.C. is finally fixing this is due to a young Victoria teacher named James Skwarok, also known as Mr. Floatie. Mr. Floatie is a 6 foot tall example of what Victoria needs to stop flushing into the ocean. Mr. Floatie has spent years showing up at unfortunate times for B.C. officialdom, using his high pitched voice to deliver a message from a group of activists calling themselves People Opposed to Outfall Pollution (POOP).

The Outfall part of POOP is what the humongous pipe is called that delivers the untreated sewage to the Straits.

POOP and Mr. Floatie were a public relations disaster for the British Columbia tourist industry. Mr. Floatie and POOP sent letters, about Victoria's Sewage Scandal, to all countries coming to Canada for the Olympics.

In 2003 British Columbia's government signed on to a plan to do nothing about Victoria's pollution for 25 years.

In 2005 Mr. Floatie tried to run for mayor of Victoria. The city somehow was able to block this, barring Mr. Floatie from candidate forums. Which, of course, generated way more publicity for Mr. Floatie and his cause.

In 2006 the gig was up for Victoria and its official position that pumping raw sewage into clean water causes no problem, when the Society of Toxicology and Chemistry concluded that Victoria had to stop with the dumping of raw, untreated, toxic sewage.

So, more than 20 years after this first became a scandal in Washington State, the Canadians are finally agreeing to clean up after themselves. And we have Mr. Floatie and his guerrilla tactics to thank for it.

I have been trying to think of a Barnett Shale Gas Driller Pollution equivalent of Mr. Floatie that might be used as a guerrilla tool to embarrass the corrupt city government of Fort Worth, the corrupt state agencies, like the TCEQ, who are supposed to oversee the gas drillers and the corrupt, running roughshod over Texans property, Natural Gas Drilling Companies, like Chesapeake Energy.

But, I draw a blank. Can anyone think of a Mr. Floatie for Fort Worth?