As temperatures climbed toward the anticipated 28C high Thursday (July 31), swimmers disregarded Island Health signage warning of unsafe waters at a popular Victoria swimming dock.
Bathers took dips even as an additional hand-drawn chalk sign alerted Banfield Park visitors of “poo water” two days after sewage spewed into the Gorge Waterway during work on underground infrastructure.
One of the few folks who opted to swim explained he hadn't seen the no-swimming signs. Despite taking a plunge, he wasn’t concerned about getting sick.
“You hear stories all the time about how this is not the cleanest water,” he said. “It’s been fine for me every other time I’ve come here. I came here all the time last summer, it was totally fine.”
But seven-year-old Jasper wasn't too pleased to see people swimming.
“I’m worried that people are going to die in there maybe," he said. “I’m happy people are warned about it, but not happy that people aren’t listening."
For two days, a city sewer intermittently pumped sewage into the waterway before it was discovered and reported. On July 30, Island Health sampling confirmed the waters had high bacteria levels adjacent to the dock at 500 Selkirk Ave. leading to the beach advisory – one that didn't surprise local Krystyna Adams.
“We’re in a city, so ... there’s runoff and different things like that,” she said. “One thing that always gives me confidence is that this swim dock does pass water testing.”
Though she was “disappointed” about the spill, Adams said Victoria did a good job responding.
“The fact that an advisory was out right away – it felt like it was communicated decently well, and that there are signs out,” she said.
The health risk stems from a bypass installed to allow the Capital Regional District (CRD) and Victoria to work on underground infrastructure. It was set for a specific manhole to fill with sewage, then trigger a pump at a certain level, sending periodic flushes into the Gorge instead of the bypass, said William Doyle, Victoria’s director of engineering and public works.
The CRD had previously done work to determine the bypass was viable ahead of the project, Dolye said. “This was just an unidentified issue that was unforeseen.”
Once pinpointed, crews stemmed the flow of sewage, but the CRD project has about seven weeks of work left before a permanent fix can be explored. While the amount of effluent pumped into the waterway is “difficult to assess”, provincial regulators will ask for that information, so staff are working on it, Doyle added.
How quickly the waters will return to healthy bacteria levels also remains an unknown, with the city relying on Island Health testing.
Adam Omanson, who has been coming to the Gorge for nine years, called the city about the leak.
"I’m always keeping an eye out for anything that seems off or harmful to the environment," he said. "I was lucky enough to find something that needed to be stopped.”
He thinks the city's response has been good.
“They shut that pipe down right away,” he said. "And considering the tsunami advisory, they shut that down quite fast, and they did the right thing by putting an advisory up.”
Despite the pollution of one of Greater Victoria’s most popular swimming spots, he sees this “as a huge positive.”
“Here’s a pipe that has been there for maybe 100 years. Who knows how long it periodically was pumping some sewage in here and there,” he said. "This is a happy story. We found a pipe that was leaking, and now it’s never going to leak again.”
It's unknown how long the swimming advisory will be in effect for the segment of the waterway that also flows through Saanich and Esquimalt and into Portage Inlet. The advisory will be lifted when Island Health gives the all clear, which requires two consecutive tests showing allowable levels.
Other advisories – for various other reasons – remain in place for Langford Lake (Leigh Road), Esquimalt Lagoon, Thetis Lake Beach, Prior Lake, Elk Lake, Ross Bay Beach and Beaver Lake. A Glen Lake advisory was lifted July 31.
For the full list of beach advisories under the watch of Island Health, visit: inspections.myhealthdepartment.com/island-health/beach-advisory.
