Re: “Sludge-plant foes win in Esquimalt,” July 4
Thanks to stunning incompetence of the Capital Regional District staff and municipal politicians in their CRD roles in managing the biosolids plant location, we now have a situation where one community has been totally alienated and the CRD is stuck with a $17-million property that no one wants.
The Hartland landfill site that was originally selected simply as a placeholder has, by default, now become the site for the biosolids plant, necessitating the construction of an 18-kilometre double pipeline carrying sewage sludge across 10 environmentally sensitive waterways, with the need for four pumping stations to pump the effluent to the site 189 metres above the wastewater plant.
The toll on Saanich residents along the construction route, the risk to the environment of a pipeline leak and the threat to residents in Highlands and Willis Point to their water supply are all byproducts of CRD bungling. CRD directors were quick to run for cover as soon as the heat was raised, unanimously repudiating their decision to buy land in secret and then foist it on the public in Esquimalt.
Now they will use pressure of time to justify a ludicrous decision to build a pipeline halfway across the region, a decision that makes no sense financially or environmentally, and which will ignore the valid concerns of the residents affected.
Hugh Stephens
Victoria
