Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Time to back up and start over again

Re: “CRD heads for another conflict,” editorial, July 6. I agree with Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins that it is time to set the rewind button over sewage treatment in the Capital Regional District. According to CRD director and Saanich Coun.

Re: “CRD heads for another conflict,” editorial, July 6.

I agree with Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins that it is time to set the rewind button over sewage treatment in the Capital Regional District.

According to CRD director and Saanich Coun. Vic Derman:

“To create an opportunity for a truly progressive project, we must first put a halt to the current project. We must then negotiate an extension of time with the federal and provincial governments.”

While we are waiting for the newer technologies to emerge and a better planning process to be completed, we can:

1. Enhance our successful source-control program.

2. Accelerate programs to deal with inflow, infiltration and overflows.

3. Create and actualize a plan to deal with the considerable pollution from storm water.

4. Seek to establish a pilot for one of the emerging technologies such as microbial fuel cells. With the fuel cells, there are several groups, right now, ready to move to a pilot program.

To get the fundamentals right, we need to clarify the goal, identify and value the alternatives, and select the one with the greatest net public benefit — ecological, economic and social. This is about optimizing within given limits. It is about making wise choices, with results consistent with the intent.

We can continue to slug it out in the political arena. Or we can search for ways to deal effectively with our differences.

Sustainability guru Ray Anderson once said: “Waste is anything we did not get right the first time.”

Ray Travers

Victoria