An emergency incident at the Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant led to raw, untreated sewage being released into the Strait of Georgia on Thursday.
Metro Vancouver confirmed that the plant discharged a raw amount of sewage into the ocean on Thursday due to an emergency.
The regional district says it experienced a service disruption at around 2:40 p.m. after an unusual volume of rocky debris jammed its screening equipment.
Sean DePole, director of wastewater operations at Metro Vancouver, told Global News that the equipment needed to be isolated for about three hours while work was being done.
“Any material that we receive at the wastewater treatment plant here in Iona comes in from the service area through our customers, so through drains, sinks, toilets, as well as catch basins and maintenance holes,” he said.
“So everything that we receive does come from our customers and does come from people, so this is not an exception. This material was introduced into the system from somewhere upstream.”
- Calgary area ‘very uniquely situated’ for study of hailstorms, says researcher
- Memorial tree at Saskatoon cemetery to be cut down due to invasive disease
- ‘Sovereignty comes with responsibility:’ U.S. lawmakers to Canada on wildfires
- Bow Glacier Falls Trail, site of two deaths in 2025 rock slide, reopens to hikers
-
![]()
Ontario wildfires: Residents evacuate devastated Collins First Nation as infrastructure wiped out -
![]()
Health alerts issused as wildfire smoke continues to blanket Peterborough region -
![]()
Northwestern Ontario wildfires burn buildings, trigger evacuations -
![]()
City of Calgary could approve more than 17 thousand new homes by 2030
DePole said this type of incident has happened before.
Get daily National news
He assured residents that there is no impact on human health.
“During the short duration of three hours that we had a service interruption, the wastewater effluent was discharged out of our seven-kilometre-deep marine outfall because of the duration and through our modelling, we’ve indicated that there is no impacts to human health or the environment based on, again, the duration,” DePole added.
The release stopped at 6 p.m. and DePole said the plant has been operating since then.
Metro Vancouver says the beaches are being monitored by Vancouver Coastal Health.
Vancouver (and Montreal) have been dumping tons upon tons of sewage directly into the ocean for DECADES. But let’s be afraid of a pipeline right?
This sh it writes itself.
Anyone know how rocks get into sewage ? How do rocks manage to get into processing equipment ?
Something amiss there.
I worked within this type of operation in private industry before retiring. There’s no difference between public or private environmental discharges, the fines and penalties are the same. It’s all about process control and prevention. But, once again we have incapable people in managerial positions they shouldn’t be in.
Well you would think there would be advanced measures so things like this dont ever happen. Its 2026. A heavy fine should be in the works.