This new report shows how greywater is actually sewage and poses risks to health and water quality….
[see link below for the complete report]
Greywater poses risk to lakes
Salmon Arm Observer
By Barb Brouwer
July 20, 2010
Greywater is often indistinguishable from blackwater and discharges from private and commercial watercraft pose a risk to public health and water quality in Shuswap and Mara lakes.
This is one of the conclusions of a draft Review of Greywater Management Strategies to Protect Health and Water Quality in Shuswap Lake, commissioned by the Fraser Basin Council.
Prepared by Northwest Hydraulic Consultants Ltd., the report notes greywater discharge to Shuswap and Mara lakes is greatest during the summer boating season, particularly where houseboats congregate at popular beaches.
One test taken at Neilsen Beach Aug. 28, 2008, where 13 houseboats were moored, showed fecal coliform counts high enough to close swimming beaches under Health and Welfare Canada standards. But fecal coliform isn’t the only aspect of greywater that poses a health concern. According to the report, greywater from houseboats showed considerably higher levels of degradable organic matter (BOD) than domestic wastewater.
Monitoring last summer reveals that in July, houseboats on Shuswap Lake discharged almost six times the levels of degradable organic material than the Salmon Arm treatment plant.
‘Since the Salmon Arm treatment plant effluent is disinfected prior to discharge it has negligible fecal coliforms, which makes the houseboat greywater discharges a very important source of pathogen indicators, although no fecal coliform loadings were calculated for houseboats due to their high variability,’ reads the report.
Todd Kyllo, co-owner of Twin Anchors Houseboats, is angry that contributors to the report used 2008 data rather than a 2009 report by the Ministry of Environment and Interior Health.
‘After the MOE greywater report of 2009 was released, we had a meeting with MOE, IH, houseboat companies and the District of Sicamous,’ he says. ‘The report was given to us showing basically there was no health concern from the greywater.’
A newsletter sponsored by the three Sicamous houseboat companies and BC Marine Trades was mailed to area homes recently. It promotes the value of the industry to the Shuswap and describes issues around reconfiguring houseboats to accommodate greywater storage tanks.
‘…the technology is expensive, installing holding tanks creates stability and safety issues and there are no facilities to accommodate pumping out large volumes of water,’ reads the newsletter, indicating the houseboat companies continue to work with MOE to implement plans to significantly reduce the amount of greywater discharge.
As well, the newsletter maintains greywater discharge from houseboats is well below federal and provincial guidelines, has minimal impact on water bodies that refresh regularly and contributes minimal amounts of nutrients.
Meanwhile, Kyllo says the houseboat companies are going to be conducting their own water testing over a five-year period ‘ not just a study of houseboats, but of Sicamous Beach, Canoe Beach, Salmon Arm Bay and Blind Bay.
‘We want to get a scientific baseline on water quality in all these areas,’ he says. ‘It is our belief it (results) will be pretty much the same as it is behind the houseboats.’
Whatever the results, the Fraser Basin Council-sponsored study states that while deep waters in the middle of the lake remain relatively pristine, ‘subtle shifts’ are appearing and the appearance of lake-wide algal blooms do not bode well.
Further, notes the report, ‘it is doubtful that public health and water quality in Shuswap Lake and Mara Lake can be adequately protected over the long term unless a greywater containment strategy is developed, followed by defined timelines to eliminate greywater discharges from private and commercial watercraft.’
To start with, the report recommends the removal of automatic dishwashers and laundry facilities from houseboats, switching to phosphate-free degradable detergents, careful removal of food waste from dishes and pots before washing and conservative use of fats and oils. It also recommends all watercraft be fitted out with greywater tanks and that pump-out facilities be established around the lake, possibly beginning with pump-out barges.
But Kyllo asks why houseboat companies should be forced to spend millions changing houseboat infrastructure when greywater comprises only 1.5 to two per cent of the total pollution entering the lake system.
Click here to download the greywater report.