This week, citizens of the Capital Regional District are being asked to comment on a “biosolids energy centre” (sewage sludge treatment facility) either on Viewfield Road in Esquimalt or by the Hartland landfill in Saanich.
The Viewfield Road site is within a 500-metre radius of several hundred single and multi-family residential units, at least one grocery store, three bakeries, several coffee shops, three public schools, at least three daycares, a Montessori preschool, four community gardens, two churches, several restaurants, three pharmacies, a community centre, a community baseball diamond, at least three playing fields, nine playgrounds and four public parks.
And yet, the CRD’s numerical scoring metric used for site selection merely monetizes the social impacts of a potential BEC site by considering a 25 per cent depreciation in property values sitting within 500 metres of the site. If we take only this inadequate assessment of social costs of the proposed sewage sludge treatment facility into account, it would result in a pure economic loss of more than $100 million. The estimate of economic loss does not consider corollary economic impacts beyond this small radius.
Besides destroying the financial health of thousands of citizens, the destruction of property values of a substantial swatch of Victoria and Esquimalt will result in higher property taxes for the entire region to make up for the shortfall.
As for Hartland? Well, within the same 500-metre radius, there are no private homes, no businesses, no gardens, no playgrounds and no schools. The choice should be a simple one.
Justine Semmens
Victoria
