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CRD should take charge on sewage issue

Re: “Move ahead on sewage issue,” editorial, Dec. 17. At the Dec.

Re: “Move ahead on sewage issue,” editorial, Dec. 17.

At the Dec. 16 open house at the Songhees Wellness Centre, the Westside Sewage Treatment Committee introduced a new public education review of a full range of possible sewage-treatment technologies, resource recoveries and potential sites in that area. The City of Victoria is setting out on a similar public engagement process for the much larger Victoria, Oak Bay and Saanich sewage treatment area.

The current activities regarding sewage treatment in the region are moving several steps backward, not ahead. The ranges of possible sewage treatment technologies and multiple sites are being dramatically expanded. If a more expensive distributed system is adopted, with senior government contributions fixed at $500 million, there will be huge increases in local taxpayer costs.

Over the past eight years of CRD planning for sewage treatment, it has been clear that a centralized plant is the most cost-effective option.

The problems with the current CRD plan are twofold:

The selected McLoughlin Point treatment site has many development constraints and requires the distant Hartland site for biosolids disposal.

The CRD is designated by the province to take full responsibility for implementing and operating the new regional sewage treatment system, but the CRD has no authority to define and secure treatment sites. This is an impossible burden for elected representatives and for taxpayers in the region. This should be changed.

The CRD needs to take charge and re-establish the essential goal of implementing a sewage treatment system that meets all provincial and federal regulatory requirements at minimum cost to CRD taxpayers.

David Langley

Saanich