While some might rejoice at Environment Minister Mary Polak’s decision not to intervene in the regional sewage issue, this is not a time of triumph for anyone. The Capital Regional District and its member municipalities need to work together for a solution to avoid painful costs.
After Esquimalt declined to amend the zoning of McLoughlin Point and announced its intention to prohibit sewage treatment there, the CRD asked Polak to intervene. Even though secondary sewage treatment has been ordered by the province, Polak says the issue should be sorted out at the municipal level.
That leaves the CRD with a plan for a sewage-treatment plant — on which it has already spent $48 million — and no place to put it.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking inexorably toward the deadlines imposed by the federal and provincial governments, deadlines to which half a billion dollars in funding is attached.
Some critics have called for a different approach — building several smaller plants instead of one large one — but the CRD explored that avenue and concluded it would be more expensive than one central plant. Furthermore, the difficulty the CRD encountered in trying to get approval for one sewage site would be multiplied by the number of sites involved.
Walking away from secondary sewage treatment, as some suggest, is not an option. Those who advocate this route point to the CRD’s own studies saying the current system of discharging effluent into ocean currents is effective and safe. But senior governments didn’t buy that, and ordered the CRD to plan and build secondary treatment. The CRD has no choice but to move ahead with secondary treatment.
There is a chance Ottawa and the province could be convinced to change their minds — about the same chance as winning a lottery. Efforts in that direction would be largely wasted. In this fall’s municipal election, some incumbents might be replaced by candidates who oppose the current plan, but that won’t change the stance of senior governments, nor will it change the math.
Exploring new avenues is not free. More studies will cost more money, and won’t necessarily result in new conclusions. A site so distant it is acceptable to all — if such a site could be found — would mean more pipelines and more pumping, adding to construction and operating costs. And each new dollar added to the final price tag will come out of local pockets, not out of the federal or provincial share, which is capped.
This is the most divisive issue to afflict the capital region, yet unity and collaboration are necessary to see the project to successful completion. Going door to door in search of a new site will be useless — Polak’s decision has set a precedent, and municipalities now know they can slam the door in the CRD’s face.
The CRD isn’t a separate entity unto itself; it’s a collective of which the municipalities are part. Everyone will pay for sewage treatment; it behooves everyone to work together for the best-possible solution. Unanimity will be impossible, so compromise will be necessary. The project will have to be built in someone’s backyard.
An adversarial atmosphere has plagued the sewage project from the start. That wasn’t helped by the CRD’s surprise announcement of its purchase of the Viewfield Road site for a biosolids plant.
It’s time for the CRD and the municipalities to sit down together and say: “We have been ordered to build secondary sewage treatment and we need a place to put it. How can we achieve that?” The province gave the order, so it should be involved in the process, rather than leaving the CRD twisting in the wind.
This shouldn’t be an “us and them” situation.
