Victoria was ordered to stop dumping raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a major step toward plugging one of Cascadia's most egregious pollution sources.
The British Columbia capital and its suburbs pipe 34 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Strait each day, relying on the cold water and swift currents to handle the refuse. The practice has been a major irritant to communities like Port Angeles and Sequim, which lie just across the Strait and have invested in costly sewage-treatment facilities.
Whether to treat the outflow or not has been debated in B.C. for years. But a recent study concluded that the status quo wasn't a long-term option, especially with international attention related to the 2010 Olympics. The provincial government gave Victoria until next June to come up with a better plan.