Fish Farm Sewage - Using the Ocean as a Free, Open Sewer - How bad is it?

Fish farms use the ocean as a free, open sewer. This is an externality in economics-speak. They get to pass their sewage out for free. If they were on land, they would have to find a way to use or dispose of their sewage. Since Canada is so dumb as to allow them to use our oceans for free, why would they ever move to closed containment?

Instead, we taxpayers shoulder/absorb their sewage cost - we pay the externality. In BC it is $10.4 Billion and their sewage is roughly the same as all the 4.6 million humans in BC produce in one year. (Look in the indexes on this site for links to my calculation). Fish farm sewage exceeds the population of most countries they operate in, for example, Scotland and Norway, the latter with 8 million people.

In Victoria, the same fish farm argument has been used to avoid treating sewage for far longer than should have been allowed. A Victoria Times Newspaper article by Ken Ashley of June 21, 2016 sheds light on the externality issue.

"...Victoria currently has only a rudimentary screening system in place. This would not be considered state-of-the-art, even in a developing country. The 1950s mantra of “the solution to pollution is dilution” would get you laughed out of any undergraduate civil-engineering classroom today. Today’s engineers are focused on resource recovery, zero sludge generation, cost recovery and reduced greenhouse-gas emissions."

See: http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-science-flushes-away-sewage-dilution-theories-1.2283079#sthash.w64nY2GF.dpufttp://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-science-flushes-away-sewage-dilution-theories-1.2283079#sthash.w64nY2GF.dpuf.

In other words the fish farm waste released into the water column does not disappear, as fish farms claim, the pieces are just farther apart. 

Do they ever disappear? Ken says this: "This is also a false statement, as demonstrated by recent scientific publications from Washington state revealing that salmon populations are contaminated with a host of emerging and legacy contaminants, despite basic secondary sewage treatment at all nearby communities."

And what happens to those chemicals, antibiotics, PCBs, persistent organic pollutants? Well:

"Ecotoxicologists know that marine food-web biomagnification will reconcentrate legacy persistent organic pollutants such as PCBs and flame retardants to dangerous levels, thus invalidating the outdated “dilution-solution” mantra."

Farmed fish have all these chemicals in them. And the highest concentrations are around sewage treatment plants, for example, Iona, and, obviously, fish farms themselves.

Here are some of the new chemicals from sewage: ibuprofen, shampoos, fragrance compounds, anticoagulants, antidepressants, various endocrine-disrupting compounds, steroids, hormones, antimicrobial agents, veterinary and human antibiotics and, most recently, micro plastics. 

Yum. And that's why killer whales are so loaded with chemicals.

Are fish farm feces, food and chemicals dangerous? Well, recently it was pointed out that, well, yes wastewater is highly contaminated.

Ken: When Stanford University professor Perry McCarty, recipient of the prestigious 2007 Stockholm Water Prize, was asked: “What are the remaining challenges within wastewater and pollution to be tackled?” he replied: “Concerns with persistent organic pollutants, both in cleaning up the legacy problems with now banned chemicals and addressing the potential risk from new ones, is of ongoing and great concern.” 

And as we all know, sewage treatment plants are very expensive. We all know that the $783 million price tag for Victoria is likely to exceed $1B, so why do we want sewage in our ocean that costs megabucks to clean up?

The answer is: we don't. And why you might ask, are fish farm licenses only about $5,000 in BC, when in Norway, the same licenses for saltwater are $9- to $12-million at auction. This means we are subsidizing fish farms to the tune of $1.17- to $1.56-billion to enter our water for free, and then let their externality sewage, dead fish, viruses, and 'oils' just float away?

This doesn't make sense. So what is happening in Victoria, and BC? This: B.C.’s emerging tech sector is developing next-generation sewage treatment technologies, as evidenced by the rapid global growth of Vancouver’s Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies. 

And what is the solution, you ask? Well for fish farms to clean up their act. Ken says this about sewage: Wastewater is not a problem, it’s a resource, and the marine environment is not a waste dump.

Just as I have been saying for years. Thanks Ken, who is director of the Rivers Institute, British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Wastewater is not a problem, it’s a resource, and the marine environment is not a waste dump. - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-science-flushes-away-sewage-dilution-theories-1.2283079#sthash.w64nY2GF.dpuf

These include ibuprofen, shampoos, fragrance compounds, anticoagulants, antidepressants, various endocrine-disrupting compounds, steroids, hormones, antimicrobial agents, veterinary and human antibiotics and, most recently, micro plastics. - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-science-flushes-away-sewage-dilution-theories-1.2283079#sthash.w64nY2GF.dpuf

This is a false statement, as Victoria currently has only a rudimentary screening system in place. This would not be considered state-of-the-art, even in a developing country. The 1950s mantra of “the solution to pollution is dilution” would get you laughed out of any undergraduate civil-engineering classroom today. Today’s engineers are focused on resource recovery, zero sludge generation, cost recovery and reduced greenhouse-gas emissions. - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-science-flushes-away-sewage-dilution-theories-1.2283079#sthash.w64nY2GF.dpuf

This is a false statement, as Victoria currently has only a rudimentary screening system in place. This would not be considered state-of-the-art, even in a developing country. The 1950s mantra of “the solution to pollution is dilution” would get you laughed out of any undergraduate civil-engineering classroom today. Today’s engineers are focused on resource recovery, zero sludge generation, cost recovery and reduced greenhouse-gas emissions. - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-science-flushes-away-sewage-dilution-theories-1.2283079#sthash.w64nY2GF.dpuf