Metro Vancouver discharges raw sewage into Strait of Georgia after equipment jams

Metro Vancouver confirmed a release of raw, untreated sewage into the Strait of Georgia on Thursday following an emergency incident at the Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. The discharge began around 2:40 p.m. after an unusual volume of rocky debris jammed the plant's screening equipment.

Sean DePole, director of wastewater operations at Metro Vancouver, explained that the affected equipment had to be isolated for approximately three hours. He noted that the debris originated from the service area, coming from customers' drains, sinks, toilets, catch basins, and maintenance holes.

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Any material that we receive at the wastewater treatment plant here in Iona comes in from the service area through our customers, so through drains, sinks, toilets, as well as catch basins and maintenance holes. So everything that we receive does come from our customers and does come from people, so this is not an exception. This material was introduced into the system from somewhere upstream.

DePole assured the public that the incident poses no threat to human health. He stated that during the three-hour service interruption, the wastewater effluent was discharged through the plant's seven-kilometer marine outfall. Based on modeling and the short duration, officials indicated no impacts on human health or the environment. The release stopped at 6 p.m., and the plant has since resumed normal operations. Vancouver Coastal Health is monitoring the beaches.

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During the short duration of three hours that we had a service interruption, the wastewater effluent was discharged out of our seven-kilometre-deep marine outfall because of the duration and through our modelling, we’ve indicated that there is no impacts to human health or the environment based on, again, the duration.