Re: “It’s time to move on with Seaterra program,” comment, Feb. 15.
I am happy that wastewater treatment is finally coming to fruition in Victoria. The rest of the province was not so fortunate as to be allowed to defer this enormous expense.
I was particularly interested in the scope of the Seaterra program and the projected cost estimate, which I find to be grossly excessive at $783 million.
As the special-projects manager at the Western Pulp mill in Port Alice, I was involved in the design, construction, start-up and operation of the mandated wastewater treatment plant. The process choice and design criteria were produced by Novatec Consultants of Vancouver, and the construction and supervision were performed by Industra Inc. of Seattle.
The plant was designed to process 136 million litres per day with a load equivalent to a municipality of 1.3 million people. The cost estimate in 1994 was $65 million, and the final cost was substantially below that when it started up in 1995.
Unless the extra costs are for new collection and pumping facilities and a gas collection, compression and distribution system, I believe the estimated costs to be severely out of line. I would want at least a second opinion. I can’t believe costs have increased more than 10-fold in 19 years.
Ron Palmer
Nanaimo
