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How can we reach our 2020
Greenest City Targets?

GC 2020

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9 results found

  1. Divert sewer runoff into groundwater

    Before 1850 when the rain fell on Vancouver, it soaked into the ground, which then fed the over 50 streams which crisscrossed the land. This water which supported a multitude of life then ran to the Burrard Inlet, False Creek and the Fraser River.

    Today most of rainwater ends up on asphalt streets and the rooftops of buildings and this water runs into countless sewers which end up in the same surrounding water systems. As the water runs into the sewers, it picks up pollution from cars, residue from asphalt streets and tar roofs and many other small and large…

    40 votes
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  2. Improve sewage treatment

    Currently, the treatment plants of Iona and Lions Gate are only primary and yet to be upgraded. Secondary treatment is the Canadian standard for cities, and when Vancouver reaches that we'll just be average. A Greenest City would have tertiary treatment of its sewage, and should be a primary goal. Innovative technologies should be explored and developed in Vancouver on a larger scale to set an example, and to market to other cities globally. One example is a Solar Aquatics system (http://www.ecological-engineering.com/solaraquatics.html), as demonstrated in Bear River, Nova Scotia.

    20 votes
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  3. Celebrate water! Rain water, river water, ocean water -- let's treat it like we love it!

    Some ideas for celebrating water might include...

    • Making beautiful rain-powered water sculptures as public art
    • "Daylighting" our lost creeks
    • Creating new "creeks" (swales) and ponds to manage our stormwater
    • Making sure our rivers and ponds and coastlines stay/get clean enough to swim in and fish in and play in again

    What are your ideas?

    16 votes
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  4. Expand the Yellow Fish Markers on Storm Drain Sewers Program

    Historically, industrial man has been accustomed to using our waterways as a dumping ground for unwanted waste. Sadly this has led to our ocean becoming a toxic soup for animals and plants. Agricultural fertilizer runoff cause algal blooms. Inefficient or excessive garbage has caused many massive garbage (mostly plastic) islands to appear in the oceans and has had an adverse impact on seabirds and sea mammals. Chemicals are dumped down sewers and fish are killed immediately. In Burnaby Byrne Creek has had too many such incidents in the past few years; so many in fact that an initiative called “Stream…

    15 votes
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  5. Get rid of the chlorine in our swimming pools and water supply. even the new 2010 pool has chlorine

    get rid of the chlorine in our swimming pools and water supply. even the new pool by the nat bailey stadium has chlorine, even though the 2010 olympic buildings, of which this was a part, were supposed to be green. chlorine is NOT green.

    12 votes
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  6. Biodiversity and Permeability Standards through the Zoning By-law

    Create a biodiversity and permeability performance standards for new development through the Zoning By-Law. A variation on this could be create market incentives for more biodiversity.

    8 votes
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  7. 8 votes
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  8. Payment for ecosystem services

    Build a world-leading payment for ecosystem services program for the freshwater. A multi-tiered water user system that redistributes money from water users to watershed managers to restore and manage the watershed so that it continues to purify water naturally!

    6 votes
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  9. Composting public toilets for Wreck Beach (refer to West Coast Trail)

    Wreck Beach is one of the most popular destinations in our city - it is served by FAR too few porta-potties, and they are often too few as well as rather nasty. Take the idea even bigger and make it a city wide/beach wide initiative to replace aging or non-existant toilet facilities in parks/beaches from Stanley Park to Lighthouse Park....

    3 votes
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