Esquimalt didn’t want the region’s new sewage plant, but it does want the heat from the plant. It’s a reasonable request, and the Capital Regional District should try to make it work.
The township has fought a losing battle against plans to put the new facility at McLoughlin Point. In an effort to find a silver lining in the cloud, it has issued a request for proposals to study the feasibility of taking heat from the plant and piping it to recreation centres and municipal buildings.
When sewage is digested in the treatment process, it produces heat ranging from 12 degrees to 22 degrees. One method is to use heat pumps to concentrate that heat and send it to nearby buildings.
Heat recovery is already being used successfully in North Saanich, where the sewage plant helps to heat the Panorama Recreation Centre, and the CRD estimates that the new regional plant could heat 18,500 homes.
Rather than homes, Esquimalt envisions heat for the municipal hall, library, public safety building, recreation centre, sports centre and public-works yard, as well as two highrises to be built near the town hall.
Money will be the tricky part. The North Saanich equipment saves $112,000 a year in natural gas costs, but maintenance costs $50,000. It will take more than 30 years to recover the capital cost, says the CRD’s website. A federal grant covered most of the $3-million cost.
Okanagan College in Kelowna saves $100,000 a year after spending $1.5 million on a heat-recovery system. However, a report on that project notes that the pipes from the sewage plant to the college boilers are 500 metres long, and if the distance were only a little greater, the system would not have been financially viable.
In Esquimalt, the buildings are two kilometres from the plant, so a major part of the study will be whether the plan makes financial sense over that distance.
The study is worth the $30,000 Esquimalt is proposing to spend, and if the report is favourable, the CRD should give serious consideration to granting the township’s wish.
