Environmental Conditions in Greater Vancouver
by Tony Eberts
There are encouraging trends in Greater Vancouver’s air, water and soil qualities, which already compare well with any urban area in the world. Some “problems” might be better classified as issues or controversies. However, there are long-standing disputes, especially in such areas as toxic mill effluents, sewage management, logging near drinking water reservoirs, freeways versus public transport and development of farmland for industry, housing and golf courses.
When you consider that more than half the population of the entire province is concentrated in an area representing less than two per cent of British Columbia and that Greater Vancouver’s population is increasing by about 40,000 each year well, disagreements can hardly come as a surprise.
Woodsmoke is still a problem in many upcountry communities because of large-scale burning of the waste wood left by clearcut logging, but the Vancouver area has outgrown that. Here the battle is against that nasty, brownish haze known as smog, and the chief cause of it is the motor vehicle. On warm, sunny days with little or no wind, polluted air sometimes builds up over the eastern part of Greater Vancouver.
Despite the good effects of the 1990 ban on leaded gasoline, provincial and GVRD monitoring shows that on about 100 days each year some testing stations rate air quality as only fair.
According to environment ministry scientists, computer models of ozone generation (by vehicles, waste burning, natural gas processing and hot sunshine) indicate the situation will change very little during the first decade of the 21st century.
Some cheering statistics: while Vancouver is Canada’s third largest city, air quality problems are worse in 10 other major centres. And while some cities (Toronto, for one) have to contend with smog drifting in from other areas, we on the Pacific Coast have only ourselves to deal with.
According to a survey by B.C. Water Management Branch scientists L.G. Swain and G.B. Holms and others, some 900 million cubic metres of gunk (domestic sewage, industrial and milling waste, urban and agricultural runoff) goes into the Fraser River each year from Hope to the estuary.
Frightening as that sounds, the flow of the Fraser (the third largest river in Canada) is so huge that overall water quality can actually be rated fair to good. And senior government agencies are working on a special Green Plan for protecting the big river and its major salmon runs.
Parts of the estuary now receiving attention include the large Burns Bog in Richmond and Boundary Bay in Delta. Biologists of the Canadian Wildlife Service report that these areas support the greatest numbers of wintering waterfowl, shorebirds and birds of prey in Canada. Burns Bog is a natural wonder-4,000 hectares of swamp, forest, peat and Fraser River foreshore that has resisted dozens of development schemes. Ten times the size of Stanley Park, the bog accommodates much of Vancouver’s garbage in one small area, while the rest is home to a wide range of wildlife and a rearing place for young salmon and other fish. Marshlands and undeveloped shoreline along the Fraser are vital to the survival of young salmon and trout.
One of the most emotional disputes involves the clearcut logging that the GVRD water committee allows in the old-growth forests surrounding mountain lake/reservoirs that supply the area’s domestic water.
Water quality has fallen sharply, obviously due to increased rapid runoff that washes down silt and other impurities from slopes stripped of forest cover. But instead of suspending the logging and road-building in the watersheds, GVRD officials have chosen to simply treat the dirty water with an expensive chlorination system. One wag has suggested that if Vancouverites don’t like dark-colored water, they should ask the loggers to stop chewing tobacco.
Running from West Vancouver to Squamish is scenic Howe Sound, with the Sea to Sky Highway and BC Rail’s main line following its rocky shore. Once heavily polluted by rampant effluent of pulp mills, water quality is improving after environmental groups pressured government and the mills.
Some objective viewers of the situation predict that a compromise soon will be struck, just as reasonable compromises are being reached in controlling urban development in prime farmland and creating more parks and wildlife preserves.
Another highly controversial subject is the use of pesticides, especially chemicals broadcast from aircraft. Every time an urban or suburban area is sprayed for the elusive Gypsy Moth, for example, public health officials are bombarded with complaints of mysterious illnesses and invasion of personal rights and liberties.
Agriculture Canada experts insist that the biological pesticide used to save us from the possible (but highly unlikely) invasion of tree-damaging moths has been proven to be totally harmless to humans. Some of the humans respond that the same once was said about DDT. However, government agencies tend toward increasingly strict controls of pesticide use, and regular inspections of agricultural products are turning up no serious problems.
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