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CRD chairman invites minister to board’s sewage-plant parley

With the clock ticking loudly, Capital Regional District chairman Alastair Bryson has invited Environment Minister Mary Polak to attend a CRD board meeting to outline whether she will break the impasse over locating a sewage treatment plant at Esquim
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Capital Regional District chairman Alastair Bryson has invited Environment Minister Mary Polak to attend a CRD board meeting to outline whether she will break the impasse over locating a sewage treatment plant at Esquimalt’s McLoughlin Point.

With the clock ticking loudly, Capital Regional District chairman Alastair Bryson has invited Environment Minister Mary Polak to attend a CRD board meeting to outline whether she will break the impasse over locating a sewage treatment plant at Esquimalt’s McLoughlin Point.

“Under the Federal Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations, the CRD must submit an application for a transitional authorization on or before June 30, 2014, or the CRD will be in contravention of the regulations. This application must include a detailed plan and the location of the wastewater facilities,” Bryson writes in his letter dated April 30.

“Besides the regulatory compliance requirements, there are significant financial implications associated with further delays,” he says.

“Due to the urgency of this matter, I respectfully request that you attend the CRD board meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 14, 2014, at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the request outlined in the letter of April 10, and hopefully to provide your response, which will inform the CRD’s necessary decisions.”

Polak told the Times Colonist she has responded in writing to the request but felt it was inappropriate to comment until the CRD had received her reply.

Asked if he thought Polak would attend, Bryson said: “I will be pleased to meet with the minister at her convenience; given the urgency of the situation, sooner would be better than later.”

Geoff Young, chairman of the CRD’s liquid waste management committee, said the CRD needs some direction on how to proceed.

“I don’t know if she’ll be able to attend, but I think [Bryson] was trying to stress that this is a situation of some urgency,” Young said.

“We have some deadlines coming up — ones that will affect our costing — but also some legal issues with regard to making sure the project continues to move forward because there are deadlines that have been imposed on us,” he said.

The CRD appealed to the province for help last month after Esquimalt turned down its rezoning application of a former oil tank farm at McLoughlin Point for a sewage treatment plant. Council further resolved to change the zoning to specifically disallow a treatment plant there.

Seaterra, the commission appointed by the province to oversee the megaproject, has said every month’s delay is adding $1 million to the cost of the project.

In an earlier letter to the minister, Bryson said that before deciding on McLoughlin Point, the CRD undertook an “exhaustive” search for other sites and concluded other sites were either not available or would result in additional costs of at least $80 million to $100 million.

The letter asked the province to issue an order under the Environmental Management Act setting aside Esquimalt zoning provisions standing in the way of the sewage plant.

Meanwhile, Esquimalt plans to introduce zoning and Official Community Plan amendments Monday that would prohibit a sewage plant on the McLoughlin site with public hearings planned June 23 or later.

Esquimalt council also has instructed staff and legal counsel to oppose the CRD’s application to the minister, said Mayor Barb Desjardins.

Desjardins said rather than putting the minister through “what could be perceived as a grilling” by asking her to attend a CRD board meeting, the region should have discussions with the province about options.

“It is what it is. The CRD will do what they feel they need to do,” Desjardins said.

With a file from Lindsay Kines

bcleverley@timescolonist.com