Beacon Hill Park, Ogden Point and Rock Bay are among 40 potential sites for a sewage-treatment facility on the east side of the capital region.
The Eastside Select Committee — a Capital Regional District sewage-treatment subcommittee representing Victoria, Oak Bay and Saanich — released a map Tuesday showing public and private properties that have been identified as “technically feasible.”
Other potential sites include Banfield Park, Barnard Park, Royal Athletic Park, Windsor Park, Saanich Public Works, Henderson Park and private properties in the Gordon Head-Cadboro Bay and Tillicum south areas.
“In past iterations of this project, sites were purchased behind closed doors, then released to the public,” said Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps. “Sites were chosen, then — some would argue — thrust on the public. We’ve learned our lesson.”
Each of the member municipalities proposed sites within its boundaries for public consultation. The committee expects to select a site or sites by the end of June.
Some sites are small and could host smaller plants as part of a network of facilities, while others are large enough to serve a much bigger area.
Private properties have not been publicly identified, but their general locations are on the map. More information about the sites will be available next week, Helps said.
The committee will host public discussions at the University of Victoria’s Cadboro Commons building on May 30 at 10 a.m. and at the Victoria Conference Centre on May 31 at 10 a.m. The committee hopes to present results at a workshop June 10 and whittle down options to about eight.
Then, the committee hopes to pool its options with those identified by Westside Solutions, a parallel group representing Colwood, Esquimalt, View Royal, Langford and the Songhees Nation.
Westside Solutions has identified 20 potential sites, but has not made them public.
Bruce Carter, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, said the region has already presented a list of options, only to have its final choice rejected by the neighbourhood.
It took four years for the Capital Regional District to settle on Esquimalt’s McLoughlin Point as a site for a regional plant, but the plan went off the rails last year when Esquimalt refused to rezone the site and the province declined to overturn the decision.
“It’s a very tough road ahead for the eastside sewage committee and they may start some dialogue, but it’s not dialogue they haven’t had in the past,” Carter said.
Some options seem unrealistic, he said. Would a facility at Ogden Point compromise the cruise-ship industry? Would the coast guard have to be evicted if a plant moved in?
“For all that they are technically feasible, I don’t know which ones of those are politically palatable,” Carter said.
Rob Wickson, president of the Gorge-Tillicum Community Association, said the CRD should consult directly with potential host communities.
“They want to consult us by asking us to come out to see them. They need to come see us,” Wickson said. “They’re trying to stuff it into a neighbourhood without talking to the people who live there.”
The CRD’s sewage-treatment project has a budget of $788 million; the federal and provincial governments are to contribute two-thirds of the cost, and the remainder would come from local taxpayers.
If strict deadlines are not met, the CRD risks losing federal and provincial funding.
Helps has said a site needs to be selected and zoning completed by December, with final approval by March 2016. But she said funding isn’t her only incentive to meet deadlines.
“We’ve talked about this project for 20 years or more. If we can prove to ourselves that we can actually do something on sewage, then the world is our oyster. If we can do this, we can do anything.”
asmart@timescolonist.com
