Re: “Did the CRD select the best sewage-treatment plan?” April 30.
Dr. Shaun Peck says there’s a political impasse in the sewage-treatment issue. That is incorrect. McLoughlin Point is still zoned for sewage treatment under Bylaw 2806. Esquimalt did not rescind this bylaw at its April 7 meeting; rather, council directed staff to find out about amending the official community plan to remove sewage treatment from “allowable uses” of McLoughlin Point.
Amending an OCP is not a small issue. Most notably, it involves a full public hearing process. In fact, we are exactly where we were in July 2013 when the township rezoned McLoughlin Point for sewage treatment under bylaw 2806.
The ball is firmly in the Capital Regional District’s court to move this process forward. And, if it can’t work with the conditions as they are, then it needs to go back to the drawing board.
And in starting over, the best place to start would be a third-party independent review of the current project and an honest evaluation of a decentralized model as support by the Sewage Treatment Action Group, which could mean significant financial savings for the taxpayers of the region.
Beth Burton-Krahn
Esquimalt
