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Time is of the essence for sewage-treatment plan

Re: “Potential waste-plant sites are all over the map,” May 13. East-side public meetings started at the end of April and will continue through May and into June.

Re: “Potential waste-plant sites are all over the map,” May 13.

East-side public meetings started at the end of April and will continue through May and into June. The focus has been on public values, attitudes and concerns related to sewage treatment concepts, technologies, and now site-location criteria.

“Preferred solution sets” will be completed in June. These will gauge public support for high levels of sewage treatment, for water recycling and resource recovery, distributed rather than centralized systems, and site criteria that minimize social and environmental impacts. All hoped for at reasonable cost. The means of putting the pieces together into a working system and the actual long-term cost implications of the public preferences will be missing. Total participation at the public meetings might be a tenth of one per cent of the general public.

I believe most Capital Regional District residents see their personal responsibilities for sewage treatment ending when they flush. Beyond that point, a treatment scheme that meets federal and provincial standards with maximum senior government funding and minimum long-term local taxpayer cost would receive strong support if the general public were widely canvassed.

The new independent technical assessments to be launched in July should include such a baseline scheme. A Clover Point plus Ogden Point system for the east side and a Macaulay plus McLoughlin (capacity reduced by 60 per cent) system for the west side could well be the winner. Selection and costing of a specific overall treatment scheme, incorporating recommended technologies and sites for the entire core area, has to be completed for CRD board approval in September.

David Langley

Victoria