CRD STORMWATER: Esquimalt — The Place of Shitty Waters?

 

Esquimalt — The Place of Shitty Waters?

The CRD keeps finding sewage indicators and High-rated storm drains beside Esquimalt’s shoreline. At this pace, “When can we swim?” begins to sound like “Never.”

“The Place of Shitty Waters” is a deliberately blunt description of what we are allowing to happen around Esquimalt. It is not a translation of Esquimalt and is not presented as an Indigenous place-name.

Picture a family walking down to the water on a warm summer day. The children are carrying towels. Someone has brought a paddleboard. The water looks inviting, and from the beach there is no obvious sign that anything is wrong.

Now look a little closer.

At Kinver, two storm drains beside beach access have been rated High for Public Health Concern for three consecutive years. At Sturdee, another High-rated drain sits about seven metres from beach-access stairs. Around the same shoreline system, the Capital Regional District has recorded sewer odour, murky water, macerated paper, biofilm, bacterial mats and extraordinary concentrations of E. coli coming from stormwater discharges.

None of that is visible from a postcard.

It is buried in the technical appendices of the CRD’s 2025 Core Area Stormwater Quality Program Report, published in 2026. The report identifies six Esquimalt stormwater discharges as High for Public Health Concern:

744B, 781, 805, 806, 812 and 814.

Those six pipe numbers tell the real story of Esquimalt’s shoreline. Not the plans, promises, studies or council presentations—the water still coming out of the pipes. The CRD confirms that this is its current 2025 Core Area report.

What Does “High” Mean?

CRD’s High rating is a prioritization tool. It is not a beach-closure order, and it does not mean every litre of water around Esquimalt is unsafe at every hour of every day. CRD expressly says the system is not a complete human-health risk assessment.

Saanich Stormwater: Would Council Swim in This Water?

 

CRD 2025 Stormwater Report — 

Would Saanich Mayor and Council Swim in This Water?

From Tod Inlet to Cordova Bay, Cadboro Bay, Elk and Beaver Lakes, the Colquitz, Portage Inlet, Cecelia Creek and the Gorge, few municipalities affect as many different receiving waters as Saanich. So why are we still finding sewage indicators, contaminated creeks, algae warnings and beaches under advisory?

Here is a simple question for Saanich Mayor, Council and senior staff.

Would you swim in it?

Not on the perfect sunny afternoon after three clean samples.

Would you swim beside the storm drain when CRD has measured thousands of E. coli?

Would you put your grandchildren into a creek where bacteria have reached 12,000 with no rain?

Would you swim downstream of a watershed where CRD has recorded sewage odour, contaminated sediment, metals and tire chemicals?

Would you tell your family not to worry because the polluted pipe happens to be listed under another municipality?

That is where this story begins.

Because Saanich is not just another municipality with a few storm drains.

Saanich drains almost everywhere.

East toward Cadboro Bay, Cordova Bay and Haro Strait.

West toward Tod Creek, Tod Inlet and Saanich Inlet.

North and inward through Elk and Beaver Lakes, O'Donnell Creek and Haliburton Brook.

South through the Colquitz River into Portage Inlet and the Gorge.

Southeast through Bowker Creek toward Oak Bay.

And through the huge buried Cecelia Creek watershed into Selkirk Waters and the Gorge.

The research record identifies all of these as receiving systems Saanich either drains into or materially affects.

That makes Saanich's stormwater story different.

You cannot judge it by counting the handful of pipes sitting neatly inside a municipal column in a CRD table.

You have to follow the water.

And when you do, the picture gets considerably dirtier.

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The CRD report says Saanich has one High outfall. The water tells a bigger story.

Victoria Stormwater: How Many More Generations Must Inherit Pollution?

 

Victoria Stormwater: 

We Know the Pipe Numbers. 

Fix Them.

CRD’s 2025 report documents sewage indicators, chemical hot spots and long-running problem drains entering Victoria Harbour, the Gorge and Oak Bay. Our children should not inherit another generation of reports and excuses.

The Capital Regional District has released its 2025 Core Area Stormwater Quality Program Report.

It does not uncover a new problem.

It confirms that governments have spent decades measuring many of the same polluted pipes.

The drains are numbered. The catchments are mapped. Sewage indicators have been measured. Industrial and business discharges have been found. Cross-connections between sewage and stormwater systems have been identified.

CRD monitors, investigates and helps trace contamination. But CRD is clear: municipalities own and operate their storm drains and are responsible for remedial work where possible.[1]

In plain English:

CRD can identify the sick pipe. The municipality still has to fix it.

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Fourteen years. Four fewer high-rated discharges.