This is the site of the old cement factory across Saanich Inlet from Brentwood Bay. It's been shut down for years and there are plans to turn it into a new town with thousands of residents. The developers have been working on clearing and "de-contaminating" the site (you could sometimes hear the blasting underwater at McKenzie Bight), but as far as I know they are still awaiting approval for the final permit. Concerns include water sources, sewage disposal and increased traffic on the already-dangerous Malahat highway. I suppose an argument in it's favour is that if you're going to build a town from scratch, you might as well do it on a site that has already been wrecked by years of industrial use. A proposed waterfront park might also be of interest to shore divers. If you ask nicely, the developers might allow you access for a dive from the shore, but I just took my boat across on July 18, 2010. I've heard a rumour from 2 different people of cement statues and gargoyles that were dumped into the water here years ago, back when the cement plant was in operation. Maybe they were damaged "factory seconds". I though that they would make for a spooky underwater photo-op, but since this is a long coastline, they could be anywhere. I tied up near the Northern end of the site behind a tied-up barge and a dock under some large silos. I swam out under the dock which didn't have much living on the pilings except for sunflower stars. There were schools of perch and tube snouts and several gunnels. The base of the dock was 30 feet deep and visibility was about 30 feet. I continued to swim down the silt/small rock slope and I saw some kind of metal walkway with railings lying on the bottom maybe 50 feet deep. Visibility down here was about 50 feet. There wasn't much on the slope except for more sunflower stars. I swam South at a depth of 80 feet. I reached a small rocky reef going down to about 100 feet. A cloud sponge and some copper rockfish were living on it. A small, pale Irish lord was sitting on the sponge. The bottom was covered with a strange, grey silt. The obvious reason, given the location, would be that it was cement dust. Just past the reef, the "dust" was hanging suspended in a cloud a few feet above the bottom. It looked like a fog bank with a few small rocky islands poking up. At first I thought that it was some kind of silt landslide, but it wasn't moving. Maybe it was caused by the swarms of shrimp jumping around. Anyway, it was creeping me out (usually when you see a silt cloud you assume that something big has been thrashing around) and the cloud was getting worse so I swam a bit shallower (70-80 feet) where it was clearer and continued to swim South. I reached an area covered with industrial-looking rubble. There was iron rebar and shattered chunks of concrete. It seemed like it was bulldozed off the land and it slid down the slope. I saw a strange shape below me at about 100 feet. It was a 10-foot tall cement pillar with a decent-sized cloud sponge growing on it. There were a few small black, brown and quillback rockfish around the sponge and rubble. I swam back up to the shallows (20-30 feet deep) and headed back towards the dock. The bottom here was the same silty slope with occasional rubble. Everything shallower was covered with bottom kelp. There were several large lion's mane jellyfish floating around. I usually see dogfish sharks in Sannich Inlet at this time of year, but I didn't see any today. I ended my dive among the forest of pilings under the dock. I actually found this dive pretty interesting. When I consider that I found cloud sponges on pretty much the only solid structure below 90 feet, I wonder if there is a magical pile of ghostly cement statues covered with cloud sponges that I just missed. I'll have to come back and have a look at the rest of this coastline.
