Flush with concerns

It has to stop, this process of dumping raw sewage into the ocean.

According to Liberal Opposition leader Yvonne Jones, there are over 700 sewer outfalls in this province.

Those 700 pipes are, collectively, millions of gallons of untreated human waste into our bay, harbours and coves.

In the House of Assembly last week, Jones wondered how Newfoundland and Labrador municipal governments, and citizens, would manage to pay to upgrade to treated systems if they are required, by Canadian law, to do so.

Ottawa is proposing legislation that would require municipalities to install sewage treatment plants to reduce the pollution going into the ocean.

Sewage treatment plants, cost money.

Jones says it would cost about $2.9 billion over 30 years to bring this province's towns in line with the new legislation.

While municipalities acknowledge the need to treat sewer, they dread the impact of the legislation if the Canadian government does not support its own Bill with supportive funding.

To bring Canadian towns and cities in line with new national sewage treatment regulations will require billions of dollars of investment by the federal government.

It will also require research and development to ensure sewage systems are cost-effective and designed for long-term use.

Some towns and cities have already experimented with lagoon systems - ponds designed to receive, hold and treat wastewater.

Still, it will require substantial funding; and time to put sewage treatment systems in place.

Yet, if the Government of Canada can justify nearly a million dollars to build a fake lake, and nearly a billion to host a meeting for world leaders, it should be able to put taxpayers dollars to much better use to solve our coastal pollution problems.

The main problem with the Bill they intend to adopt is not its purpose, but the process being used to get to the ultimate aim.

The process should have been research, development, cost analysis, funding allocation, legislation.

Done that way, new legislation would have not been met with worry and fear, but with approval and open arms.

Given the government's lack of forethought on gun legislation, airport security and its runway costs for hosting a G8 summit, and you can't blame municipal leaders for being leery of the sewage legislation.

Orderly planning; is it too much to ask?