There is room for all on the Gorge

Re: “Boats dumping sewage into the Gorge,” letter, June 10. Yet another letter repeating the agenda of Victoria city council. If people would do their homework instead of letting the council do their thinking for them, they would find out from Island Health that the Selkirk Water is cleaner than almost any other water on this end of the Island.

A marine biologist from the University of Victoria told the council that there was no evidence of us boaters using the place as a dump and we were not a threat to the eel grass. I do swim in the Gorge. And our water tests have been consistent for the six years I have been there.

This was presented to council at the third reading of the bylaw in 2013. And the majority of landsmen (and women) who spoke supported the boaters. The councillors ignored all of this, and in spite of admitting their environmental and social concerns were shot down, passed the bylaw, which was later turned down by the provincial and federal governments.

The Navigation Protection Act allows boats to anchor next to a navigation channel. The boaters received eviction notices in 2013/14 and 2015 that had no authority. Council members called us “illegally moored,” “scofflaws and lawbreakers” and non-taxpayers. Nonsense! The council is working its way around the law repeating the same shot-down complaints.

The Selkirk Water is one of the last safe anchorages near any kind of city. There is some shelter from the wind and excessive wave action and there is good holding ground on the bottom. Richard Patterson Victoria