Jun. 19--It never made sense.

Washington state, in partnership with the federal government, is spending millions of dollars to clean-up and preserve Puget Sound, yet at the same time, the city of Victoria, B.C., every day is dumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into the waters that separate Washington and Vancouver Island.

It never made sense to Washington taxpayers who were investing their hard-earned dollars to improve water quality while their neighbors to the north were polluting those same waters.

Finally, there are two bits of good news -- news that begins to make sense and put the neighboring nations on a similar course.

Deluged with bad publicity, prim and proper Victoria has done an about face. It will begin to treat its sewage before discharging it into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Secondly, Congress is on track to double its financial commitment to cleaning up Puget Sound.

ABOUT FACE

Regional politicians in British Columbia recently announced plans to spend $1.2 billion to build four treatment plants to handle about 34 million gallons of raw sewage that Victoria and six suburbs pump into the strait daily.

"Victoria's reputation has been tarnished by our sewage treatment," said Dean Fortin, who became Victoria's mayor last fall. "This is our opportunity to move forward."

Darned right it does. Fortin knows that his city would have wilted under the public spotlight next year when Vancouver, which is 70 miles away, hosts the Winter Olympics.

How would it have looked for Victoria, which promotes itself as a tourist center, a gateway to the wild forests and rugged marine coast of Vancouver Island, to repeatedly be put on the defense over its anti-environmental policies on sewage disposal?

Victoria and its suburbs are home to about 300,000 people. For years, the city has been castigated by environmentalists who say untreated sewage contains toxic chemicals, heavy metals and other contaminants that pollute waters and harm aquatic life.

Defenders in Victoria minimized the risks and environmental consequences saying the swift currents in the strait diluted the wastewater which is pumped to two outfalls that run about 213 feet deep and about a mile into the strait. Defenders said the costs of waste treatment far exceed the benefits.