Every year 100,000 Canadians—children and adults— get sick from splashing, paddling and swimming at polluted beaches and waterways.
In BC, sewage outflows are a problem province-wide. They spread disease-causing bacteria (along with chemicals and pharmaceutical residues) into the waters off many of our favourite beaches.
Unfortunately, some of our local health authorities fail to monitor and/or report water quality information to the public.
On our free Swim Guide app, this shows up as grey, rather than red or green.
For instance, beaches in the Garibaldi Coast and Sunshine Coast area are only sporadically monitored by Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. When there's no data, it makes it difficult to choose waters that are safe for swimming, splashing and paddling.
But we know we can make a difference. Thanks to the work of Fraser Riverkeeper and support from community members like you, Fraser Health, who is charged with testing beaches from Tsawwassen and Burnaby to Port Moody and Hope, recently made their data public. This means we have been able to change 48 beaches from grey to either green or red! Now we need to work together to ensure this data is updated on a regular basis.
Join Fraser Riverkeeper in calling on our local health authorities to provide reliable and consistent water quality information!
Send a Message
And feel free to adapt any of the information from these bullet points:
- Every year 100,000 Canadians get sick from splashing, paddling and swimming at polluted beaches and waterways
- Wastewater contains disease-causing coliform bacteria and over 200 kinds of chemicals that pollute recreational water
- Municipal sewage and wastewater is a serious concern all across BC
- Metro Vancouver alone dumps 36 billion litres of untreated wastewater into local waters
- Families, children, and beach-goers need reliable, easy-to-find water quality data
Know Your Health Authority
Interior Health covers Thompson Cariboo Shuswap, Okanagan, Kootenay Boundary and East Kootenay.
Island Health covers Vancouver Island, the islands of the Strait of Georgia, and the mainland communities north of Powell River and south of Rivers Inlet.
Northern Health covers the Northwest, the Northeast and the Northern Interior.
Vancouver Coastal Health covers Vancouver, Richmond, North Shore/Coast Garibaldi.
