Schnitzer Steel is offering half its leased scrap-metal site on Victoria harbour for a sewage biosolids facility, suggesting it would be a better fit than at a controversial spot on Viewfield Road in Esquimalt.
“We believe it’s a good option from a cost perspective,” said Mark Mossey, regional director for Schnitzer, a Portland-based metal recycling company. “We would love to be neighbours with a sewage plant.”
Schnitzer is offering four acres of the eight-acre property at 307 David St. in Victoria.
But the Capital Regional District has proposed building on Viewfield Road, angering neighbours and Esquimalt council, who say a sewage facility there is not appropriate because it is a residential area.
The sewage project, budgeted for $783 million, calls for a wastewater treatment facility at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt. Sludge from that facility would go to a biosolids plant that the CRD wants to build at either Viewfield Road or Hartland landfill in Saanich. The biosolids plant would reduce the volume of the sludge, creating fertilzer along with biogas that can heat buildings.
“We feel that compared to the other site [Viewfield], all things in, it would be a better decision,” Mossey said of the Schnitzer site. No asking price has been made public.
The CRD has paid $17 million for the Viewfield Road property.
Schnitzer’s offer on Monday initially caused confusion at the CRD over whether the property owner — Fred Berman of Pt. Ellice Properties Ltd. — had been consulted. Mossey said Berman is fully supportive.
Schnitzer Steel said it doesn’t need as much land because changes it’s making enable it to do the same amount of recycling in a smaller area.
Berman owned Budget Steel, which merged with Steel Pacific in 2005. The merged company operated as Selkirk Recycling until 2007 and then as Steel Pacific Recycling until 2010 when Schnitzer purchased it.
The CRD said discussions with Berman about using his property went on for a couple of years, but there was no agreement.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins urged the CRD to consider the Schnitzer site as an alternative to Viewfield Road. “This is a very different scenario; it’s in the middle of an industrial zone,” she said. “It is significantly away from a residential area. By all means, we should be looking at anything that offers a better solution.”
Instead of using trucks to transport sludge from the wastewater facility at McLoughlin Point, the Schnitzer site has the option of barging in the waste.
That idea has some boat operators concerned about the impact on tourism and traffic in the harbour. “I’m not sure adding more barge traffic for the purpose of moving feces is a necessary component of the future of a working harbour,” said Barry Hobbis, vice-president of operations for Victoria Harbour Ferries.
The CRD said it is waiting to hear more details from Schnitzer Steel and the property owner. “If the group or landowner are now ready to talk about a negotiation, we are more than happy to talk to them,” said Andy Orr, CRD spokesman.
He said one of the drawbacks of the Schnitzer site is it would only be able to accommodate the biosolids plant. An ideal site would have room for both a wastewater treatment plant and a biosolids plant.
nwells@timescolonist.com
