Residents and visitors in downtown Victoria and Esquimalt are advised to avoid entering the waters along multiple shorelines for health and safety reasons.
According to a public service announcement from the CRD, screened wastewater was discharged into the water out the short outfall overnight on June 22, affecting multiple shorelines:
- Between Fraser Street and Victoria View Road including Saxe Point, Macaulay Point and McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt; and
- Along Dallas Road between Dock Street and Government Street in Victoria.
As a result, the public should refrain from wading into the water as the discharge poses a health risk.
Advisories against entering the waters in those areas will remain in place until testing of water samples indicate that enterococci levels are below the 70CFU/100mL recreational limit.
A CRD spokesperson stated on Twitter that water samples were collected Tuesday and the test results should be back on Thursday.
The wastewater discharge was required as part of the construction process in building a new Macaulay Point Pump Station as part of the Wastewater Treatment Project.
Once complete, the system will pump wastewater from the western core area municipalities and the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations to the new McLoughlin Point Wastewater Treatment Plant for tertiary treatment.
