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CRD committee chooses Saanich, Esquimalt sites for sewage treatment

Funding deadline put pressure on members to make a decision

By Kim Westad, Times ColonistNovember 25, 2009Comments (15)

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Capital Regional District committee has chosen Haro Woods in Saanich and McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt for sewage treatment plants.

Photograph by: Victoria Times Colonist, .

The capital region’s sewage committee selected two secondary-sewage-treatment sites Wednesday to meet a federal government funding deadline, but admitted the decision is far from final.

The committee acknowledges the selected sites at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt and Haro Woods in Saanich might not be the best and other potentially better locations are still being investigated.

But to meet the federal government’s Dec. 31 deadline for one-third funding of the $967.5 million project, the region must submit a report naming specific sites. The decision also allows the Capital Regional District to meet the B.C. Environment Ministry’s Dec. 31 deadline for a site plan, although the business plan for provincial funding, also totalling one-third, isn’t required until the end of February.

Alternate sites, one in Victoria’s Upper Harbour and another adjacent to the Haro Woods site or nearby on University of Victoria land, will continue to be investigated.

Committee member Graham Hill, mayor of View Royal, equated making the choice to being a “reluctant groom.”

Locating both sewage treatment and an energy centre to convert the sludge created from treatment into power on one site has long been identified as the least-expensive option, but sites that fit that criteria only recently came up. An earlier report said the Budget Steel site on Pleasant Street would be ideal.

Chairwoman Judy Brownoff said she is certain the federal government will allow further amendments to the sites should a better one come available after the Dec. 31 deadline.

“Amendments to the Liquid Waste Management Plan happen all the time. It is not a rare occurrence,” she said.

That didn’t sit well with Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins or Saanich Coun. Vic Derman, who voted against the motion to name the sites. Desjardins wants a written guarantee that the federal government will allow changes after the deadline. She also said it’s unfair to the public to say one site has been approved when there’s something else in the wings.

Others disagreed.

“This is being straight up with our publics,” said Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin. “If we cannot negotiate a better site in the Upper Harbour or in Saanich or UVic, [McLoughlin and Haro Wood] are the sites.”

The CRD owns the Haro Wood site and has a first option to buy the McLoughlin Point site. It does not own the other sites.

Derman has long said the process used by the committee — picking a site before picking technology — is not the best way to build the most economical, technologically advanced sewage-treatment system.

Colwood and Langford must also name a site to apply for federal funding for a planned West Shore sewage-treatment system. Top choice is property owned by West Shore Parks and Recreation, but talks with owners are still ongoing.

Instead, Colwood City Hall is to be named the site, while other properties are investigated.