Vancouver plans to face climate change head-on

Kelly Sinoski and Michael Vinkin Lee in the Vancouver Sun:  The city of Vancouver has designed a climate change “adaptation” strategy to tackle a potential increase in street flooding, sewer backups, damaged forests and heat-related illnesses by 2050. The strategy, scheduled to go to council for approval in principle Tuesday, suggests nine measures to address the potential impacts of climate change, which is expected to bring more intense rain and windstorms, hotter and drier summers and rising sea levels, affecting the city’s economic prosperity and livability.

The actions range from a coastal flood risk assessment to a backup power policy, water conservation actions and a comprehensive urban forest management plan. If approved, the strategy would be reviewed annually and updated every five years.

“The climate is clearly changing and, in many instances, we are observing changes at the most extreme end of the projections made a decade ago,” the report states. “The city needs a strategy that will enable it to be prepared for these changes and continue to meet its goals in the face of climate change.”

Coun. Andrea Reimer said climate change has been on Vancouver’s radar for almost a decade, yet it continues to lag behind cities like Toronto and Halifax which already have plans in place.

She wouldn’t say how much the strategy was expected to cost, saying much of the work is based around policy decisions and work that is already being done. The report suggests costs could be as high as $750,000 for a coastal flood risk assessment and $200,000 for an urban Forest Management Plan....

A Vancouver skyline, shot by uncan Rawlinson, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Global warming means more raw sewage in Vancouver's water: report

Vancouver Sun: Public health and safety threats are escalating in Metro Vancouver because an aging sewage handling and treatment system will fail more often as a result of climate change, according to a federal report uncovered by The Vancouver Sun. The report says heavier rainstorms will frequently overwhelm portions of the region's sewage system and accelerate the spill of raw sewage into Burrard Inlet and the Strait of Georgia.

That means more raw sewage will be dumped into the ocean more often, in apparent violation of the Fisheries Act. Senior regional officials and politicians have in the past been threatened with prosecution under this act, although neither the federal nor the provincial government has to date shown any inclination to enforce it.

More raw sewage spills also mean more health risks to people using the inlet for recreation - swimming, windsurfing, sailing and fishing. Environmental groups, including the David Suzuki Foundation, were outraged to hear about the contents of the report. They are calling on regional and civic governments to act now to "avoid potential disasters including extreme impacts on human health caused by system failures."

A Metro Vancouver politician promised that the region is already developing plans to address the situation. But he warned that accelerating the schedule for new sewage treatment facilities would place an additional burden on the region's taxpayers.

…They were produced for Natural Resources Canada by a climate research committee of Engineers Canada, the organization representing 160,000 engineers nationwide. The reports, which deal with seven Canadian communities, look at a wide range of infrastructure, including roads, bridges, buildings, flood protection and water treatment facilities that may not function properly as a consequence of extreme weather events emerging as a result of climate change. The reports represent Canada's most detailed look to date at the physical consequences of climate change on critical public assets….

A view of False Creek bristling with boats, shot from the Granville St. Bridge by Jon Eben Field, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative CommonsAttribution 2.0 License from Vancouver, BC, Canada