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Sewage plant will affect many

Re: “Sewage sweetener aims to seal a deal,” Nov. 12.

Re: “Sewage sweetener aims to seal a deal,” Nov. 12.

While it’s gratifying to learn that the Capital Regional District has listened to at least some of Esquimalt’s concerns about the sewage treatment plant proposed for McLoughlin Point, where’s the concern for the folks who will be most affected, those who live or work in Vic West, James Bay and perhaps even downtown?

Few Esquimalt residents will be able to see the plant, yet the monstrosity will obliterate the skyline for thousands of others. With the prevailing west winds, few Esquimalt residents are likely to get even the faintest whiff of the plant. Instead, the wind will carry odours across the harbour and downtown. Certainly, construction traffic should be a concern, but much of that traffic will have travelled through Vic West before reaching Esquimalt.

Let’s not forget about the hundreds of thousands of visitors by cruise ship for whom the proposed plant would be the closest major feature of our otherwise wonderful city. I doubt the residents of Sydney, Australia, with their magnificent waterfront opera house, will be jealous.

There is no serious scientific justification for spending the hundreds of millions the plant will cost. A few will scorn us for dumping our waste in the ocean, but, since we’re one of the last to be doing it, the ocean is more than capable of handling it. If this were a serious environmental concern, it would have been addressed years ago, as it was in most other large municipalities on the West Coast.

Wendy Grovestine

Victoria West