The Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival will continue as planned despite raw sewage flowing into its starting location at False Creek after a city sewer main broke Thursday morning.
Metro Vancouver Regional District crews responded after a sewer main broke just before 6 a.m., spewing effluent onto a street and into False Creek.
At a press event Thursday afternoon, representatives of the district and the dragon boat festival confirmed it’s still on.
“I just want to clearly say that the festival is going ahead as planned. People should still make their plans to come out and enjoy two days of awesome fun and activity. And I want to extend sincere appreciation for what I think was an exemplary response from Metro Vancouver in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health and the City of Vancouver crews,” said Vancouver city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung.
Just after 9:30 a.m., Metro Vancouver said the leak had been “contained.” The eight inches of pooling water had significantly reduced by 10 a.m.
Dominic Lai, the senior development and marketing operations director for Dragon Boat BC, says he’s “delighted” that, after extensive discussions with Vancouver Coastal Health and other stakeholders, the event will proceed — now with hand wash stations and showers installed throughout the site.
“Just so that everyone’s mind is put at ease, and so that all the racers can enjoy racing,” said Lai.
Lai said the event is expected to attract upwards of 130,000 visitors and about 7,500 racers from around the world.
The Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival calls itself the continent’s “flagship” dragon boat festival, with events set to run from June 22 to June 23.
Michael Schwandt of Vancouver Coastal Health says as long as the boaters keep themselves clean, the festival will be safe.
“We recommend that after people use the water, that they would engage in hand hygiene, potentially use showers, if that’s feasible. And most importantly, ensure that their hands are clean before going on to eat or handle food or beverages,” said Schwandt.
He added that he wouldn’t recommend that anyone jump in the water to cool down.
“Given the ongoing conditions at Falls Creek, [submersion] just isn’t recommended ever at this point, regardless of the scale conditions, to be honest.”
CityNews 1130 is a media partner for the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival.
— With files from Charlie Carey.