We have so many bad news stories these days. But this is a good news one.
Mary shared her tale with our MLA to show clearly that good policy and political action can change a disaster into a solution.
There’s a place we like to stay when we visit Victoria called The Surf. It’s a vintage motel on Ogden Point, by the breakwater. Within walking distance, at Clover Point, for many years Victoria’s raw sewage was being pumped into the ocean. The beaches all along there weren’t safe for swimming.
My partner Neil grew up in Victoria. His father, Gordon Campbell, ran to be on council for the District of Saanich in 1970, campaigning to have a water treatment plant built. Gordon travelled to California at the time to meet with a man named Albert Marino about a water treatment plant so refined, that the water in their municipal pool was using reclaimed sewage water. Gordon hoped Victoria would use the same technology. He didn’t get enough votes, although it was very close. Instead, the pipe was extended further out into the ocean.
Between 2016 and 2021 a water treatment plant was finally built in Esquimalt. We were in Victoria in 2022, staying at The Surf when we noticed a clutch of people cold water swimming each morning. We joined them while we were there, for the first time experiencing cold water immersion in the clean, clear ocean water across from the motel. Both mornings we saw an otter family playing in the water by the breakwater.
The locals said they hadn’t seen otters in the water for many, many years. And they were overjoyed to have their beaches open again. The ocean wanted to heal itself and did so quite quickly when it was given a chance.
It’s a story of restoration. It discourages and encourages, all in the same breath. It reminds us to vote with the environment in mind and of the possibilities when we do.
Mary Kiviste, Seniors For Climate
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