The Capital Regional District is closing in on a new site for a sewage treatment biosolids centre that could eliminate the need for a large cross-town pipe, but may also result in extra land costs for taxpayers.
The $783-million sewage-treatment project currently envisions a treatment facility at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt, which would pump leftover sludge through an 18-kilometre pipe to a biosolids energy plant at Hartland Landfill in Saanich.
The entire megaproject, which is just entering the pre-tendering stage, is expected to be built and operational by 2018.
The CRD has been trying to find an alternative to Hartland for more than two years, most recently during a series of in-camera meetings over the last several months.
“We’re looking at alternative sites,” said Denise Blackwell, sewage committee chairwoman.
“We’re in some negotiations with some property owners, but will be able to make an announcement soon.”
The biosolids site would turn the sludge left over from sewage treatment into gas or solid fuel.
The federal and provincial governments have agreed to pay two-thirds funding for the CRD sewage treatment project.
But they won’t pay to purchase new land, which means the price of an alternate biosolids site would have to be borne by Greater Victoria taxpayers alone.
Regional politicians have been trying to figure out if a new location would save the project money overall.
The capital cost of the biosolids site is budgeted at $294 million, and has been mandated by the federal government as a public-private partnership.
Building the biosolids plant closer to the McLoughlin Point treatment site could reduce the 18 km pipeline, though any savings in capital and operation costs would be offset by the purchase of new land.
“The differences become quite marginal,” said sewage committee director Ben Isitt, a Victoria city councillor.
“There’s not a huge difference between what the costs of land acquisition would be, and the cost of our share of the pipeline.”
It’s likely the CRD would need to purchase, or at least option, any new land before announcing it publicly, in order to keep the price from spiking.
The CRD used a similar strategy to abruptly purchase Haro Woods, in Saanich, for $6.5 million in 2009. It had intended to put a small treatment facility on the site, but later backed down and swapped the property with the District of Saanich after a neighbourhood uproar over a treatment facility near a residential neighbourhood.
That approach worries Esquimalt mayor Barb Desjardins, whose community is already the location of the treatment plant and could be a natural choice for a new biosolids site.
“People are concerned with the process and the fact so much is kept secret,” said Desjardins.
Communities would need a full public consultation process to gauge the impact of any new locations, she said.
View Royal mayor Graham Hill said he’s concerned the CRD isn’t looking carefully enough at the best locations, and is instead focused on who’s willing to sell land at a particular price point.
It’s not the first time the CRD has entered into negotiations for a new biosolids site, said Blackwell.
In the past, such negotiations, including Victoria inner harbour property and Colwood locations, have fallen through.
“What we’re trying to do here is get some options,” said Blackwell.
The CRD’s current plan is to start pre-qualifying companies to build the biosolids site this fall, meaning a new location would need to be announced soon in order to allow for public consultation.
The CRD has also said it will pause the project during the May 14 provincial election campaign.
