Great idea ''two thumbs up!''.

We need to make it easy for people to have composting toilets, rainwater cisterns, and other systems that take the burden of water pollution off of storm sewers, streams and the nearby Georgia Strait/Salish Sea.

We need to make it hard for businesses to put any chemicals into the sanitary or storm sewer systems, as even our sanitary treatment is ill set up to handle chemical waste. Basically it filters and settles our biological waste, then sends the clear leftovers out right now... on average. Cleaning chemicals need to be detoxified, and sanitary sewers reserved for bio wastes only.

The heat pumps under Millennium village actually extract heat from the wastewater pipes there. More needs to be done to protect the ocean - returning water should be cold and clean. The money spent marketing this city should be shared with revitalizing our wastewater treatment into something worth being proud of. Then I'll think of Vancouver as a truly world class and green city worth its pristine surroundings.

Yes, better sewage treatment is a HIGH priority from the point of view of the salmon and our nonhuman neighbours who live in the water. Our survival depends on the ocean's survival, and we forget that at our own peril.

While subjected to be corrected, the reason why the City of Vancouver sought public input was likely with the intention that creative minds of Vancouverites propose cost effective locally applicable strategies that would permit Vancouver to boast and gloat about some ten parameters as the topmost. Entire concept of green city and small ecological footprint of a city is flawed. What matters is global ecological footprint of humanity. Technically if we use just ten criteria and a panel of 3 or 5 judges renders this pointless judgement Vancouver could be ruled the most livable or lovable city and the greenest city and so on but in an uninhabitable globe. What good is that. Who does that label really helps. But still it is nice that City of Vancouver is at least thinking about reducing its ecological foot print, a thing that if repeated worldwide would lead to the ultimate care which in all likelihood is going to evade us. There is little chance that Vancouver would meet its target and even if met they are meaningless at the global level. We therefore can't be a green globe or world without taking care of our oceans. Once we are dealing with ocean health we are into global realms and outside the jurisdiction of our Mayor. Sure we need urban marine protected areas but there Federal and B. C. Governments and even US government would like to and must poke its nose and do their parts. In fact Feds would not let City to deal with many aspects of oceans. Strict regulations for oil tankers are not a municipal matter nor is the habitat enhancement purely City responsibility. We can sure deal with the best sewage treatment in the world but that is going to cost us money that we don’t have. Pesticide bans are easier said than done because once we begin to go organic we are into unaffordability and even inability to feed us all. Beach clean-ups would not even be needed if people would not litter. We do need to start to revere and respect the might and powers hidden in the oceans and what it provides us but maybe we have wrecked it enough already that it is not providing us much any way and things are going to get worse from now. What has to change is the mindset of public that our air, soil, freshwater and marine water matter. To date that is not how people think. How do people suggest that our dear Mayor make people change their mindsets and habits. That is where we are really stuck. What we need to do is adopt new sustainability faith that I call Rediluvism Read more about it here http://vsrbc.web.officelive.com/REDI.aspx