REPORTS ON ARESST ACTIONS:
- SHORT REPORT FROM ARESSTER RICHARD ATWELL ON ARESST 3 OCT TOWN HALL
- FULL VIDEO COVERAGE OF ARESST 3 OCT TOWN HALL
- ARESSTER BURCHILL ARTICLE: "LAND-BASED SECONDARY SEWAGE TREATMENT - A BAD PLAN FOR SAANICH" (ATTACHED)
CRD-RELATED SEWAGE NEWS:
- WHAT YOU COULD PAY FOR SEWAGE TREATMENT
- GREENS, LIBERALS SHARE VIEW ON SEWAGE
- LETTER: IS THE GORGE ACTUALLY SAFE FOR SWIMMING? (Newcomb)
- LETTER: VICTORIA'S SEWAGE HABITS KNOWN INTERNATIONALLY (Roberts)
- LETTER: FINANCIAL AUDIT OF SEWAGE PLANT NEEDED (Newcomb)
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REPORTS ON ARESST ACTIONS:
The only person to speak was Blackwell who said my speech contained errors. She said our sewage is not treated but screened and said the project did not cost $1 Billion, but $782M. I was not given an opportunity to reply that we perform preliminary treatment and my referred to the construction AND operating costs.
PRESENTATION:
PRESENTATION:
I've come here today to report on my contact with members of the public, who believe that the Core Area Wastewater Treatment Program needs to be re-evaluated before today's bylaw can be adopted.
I have engaged the public during the last few weeks and it has surprised me that people that I meet are unaware of the following facts:
- That we are discharging treated wastewater effluent, that is 99.9% water into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
- That this project's construction and operating costs, total a projected $1 billion dollars.
- And that this project will have an overall negative impact on the environment.
Some of those I talk with feel betrayed having acquired this knowledge, and from the letters several of you are now receiving you know that many in the public feel deceived, when terms like untreated raw sewage are used to describe our wastewater effluent.
The science around this issue is crystal clear: the CRD's own outfall monitoring program and underwater imagery validate what medical health officers, wastewater treatment engineers and marine scientists have been telling us: that there is no significant public health risk nor is there an environmental risk from continued use of the current wastewater treatment system and I believe most of you on this committee know this.
For the ^MAJORITY of those I meet, the moment I describe what issue I am bringing forth I find that they agree ^WITHOUT hesitation that these are indeed the facts and it is also clear what they want as an alternative:
They demand ^COST effective treatment; ecologically ^SOUND treatment with a minimal carbon footprint in ^DIRECT alignment with municipal GHG targets. And finally and vitally important: 100% public ownership. To do otherwise, is simply contrary to the collective will of these people.
Now, we currently have a government in Ottawa that thinks science can be discarded for bad policy, a one-size fits all policy that does not take evidence into consideration.
More than ever, we need elected representatives that have their eyes open and have a willingness to understand, that it's permissible to change a plan even after the expenditure of tens of million of dollars in studies.
We WILL forgive that, but to continue down this path, I know that we will not forgive because in the end we will all look like fools having built this so-called "monument to waste" and having flushed away $1 billion dollars that could have built something or several things that would have actually improved people's lives.
Now, this administration has recently advised that fines and imprisonment have been threatened upon those who hold elected office, and stand in the way of these types of infrastructure projects.
The role of elected government above all is to bring the public interest to ^BEAR but it is patently clear that government at all levels in matters of sewage treatment and ocean regulations have failed to fulfill that role when considering Greater Victoria.
In circumstances like these I believe the appropriate action, dictated by ethics requires resignations, in the same way that board members of the PCC resigned when the Provincial Government announced its intention, to sell off public assets.
But such a request from me alone would not be representative of the collective public will.
To give you some background on myself, I have personally invested hundreds of hours fighting the HST behind the scenes. You will not have heard my name, or seen my face, but I am proud of my contributions that were instrumental in defeating that ill-conceived, burdensome tax.
It is to bear a hardship for the average person to have to change the course of government, but one that it is vitally important when governments have steered so far ^OFF course.
I am therefore now focusing my full attention on this crisis before us. I have brought with me 600 petition signatures and printed out another 1300 online signatures that I am not ready to hand over yet because I sense that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I am going to use these names to recruit the volunteers I need to collect thousands more signatures.
You may recognize the stop a bad plan banners around town already and many households are beginning to receive the literature in their mailboxes that I have created giving them the education, the tools and the encouragement they need, to put pressure on this committee and the CRD board to reevaluate this project.
These people understand that we have been given the gift of a marine environment that performs the equivalent of a land-based sewage treatment system, or even better when you consider the damage to the air and land sheds from man-made technology. And I know they are also on the side, of the public good.
In closing, I would like to quote JFK, the 35th President of the United States, who said "An error doesn't become a mistake, until you refuse to correct it".
Land-based sewage treatment for Greater Victoria is such an error, and not correcting it, will have devastating financial effects for this region. This project must not be allowed to become a mistake and it cannot be allowed to proceed against the wishes of the public you represent.
Thank you very much.
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SHORT REPORT FROM ARESSTER RICHARD ATWELL ON ARESST 3 OCT TOWN HALL
I want to thank everyone for making our Town Hall a huge success.
We have such a talented team that at times my job seems so easy. We are off to a great start.
Thanks to David Anderson whose speech was simply brilliant and so entertaining.
Thanks to Brian Burchill who put in untold hours preparing the core of our campaign education that the public will be relying on for their decision making.
Thanks to our beloved scientists who care so much our well being and our inseparable environment that sustains us.
Thanks to Dr. Peck and John Bergbusch who entertained and motivated the crowd.
Finally, thanks to the campaign team, Bill, Bob, Colin, Don, Elizabeth, Karen, John M, John N and Susan who ran with the event and made it a success. We put in many hours of preparation and planning and from the polling I did at the exit the audience enjoyed themselves and seemed motivated to take steps themselves through our campaign to stop a bad plan.
We have such a talented team that at times my job seems so easy. We are off to a great start.
Thanks to David Anderson whose speech was simply brilliant and so entertaining.
Thanks to Brian Burchill who put in untold hours preparing the core of our campaign education that the public will be relying on for their decision making.
Thanks to our beloved scientists who care so much our well being and our inseparable environment that sustains us.
Thanks to Dr. Peck and John Bergbusch who entertained and motivated the crowd.
Finally, thanks to the campaign team, Bill, Bob, Colin, Don, Elizabeth, Karen, John M, John N and Susan who ran with the event and made it a success. We put in many hours of preparation and planning and from the polling I did at the exit the audience enjoyed themselves and seemed motivated to take steps themselves through our campaign to stop a bad plan.
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FULL VIDEO COVERAGE OF ARESST 3 OCT TOWN HALL
ARESST Sewage Treatment Town Hall, St Ann's Auditorium, Oct 3, 2012 (1 HOUR 54 MINUTES):
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ARESSTER BURCHILL ARTICLE: "LAND-BASED SECONDARY SEWAGE TREATMENT - A BAD PLAN FOR SAANICH" (ATTACHED)
Richard Atwell says:
Brian's article was published in Saanich Community Roots - the newsletter of the Quadra-Cedar Hill Association.
Copies are mailed out to 5300 homes, six times a year.
This is great "press" for the education component of our campaign.
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CRD-RELATED SEWAGE NEWS:
WHAT YOU COULD PAY FOR SEWAGE TREATMENT
Oak Bay taxpayers face biggest hit in latest cost breakdown for region
Rob Shaw
Times Colonist, page A1
October 10, 2012
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO TIMES COLONIST
Oak Bay homeowners could be hit hardest when the bill for Greater Victoria's sewage treatment system comes due, according to the latest cost breakdown.
The average Oak Bay household could pay about $391 a year, the highest in the region, for the new sewage treatment system, which has an estimated cost of $783 million.
An average Saanich household could pay the least, at $232 a year.
The cost-sharing figures - the first since 2006 - are in a Capital Regional District report to be debated today by politicians on the sewage committee.
"It's the fairest way to go," said Denise Blackwell, chairwoman of the committee. "It's based on flows, and that's the way we've done it in the past, and based on the design capacity of the plant."
It's unclear when taxpayers would start paying the new charges. The CRD has yet to decide, though it used the year 2017 to estimate costs.
The estimates aren't final, and could change dramatically depending on whether municipalities pass on costs using property taxes or a user-pay model based on water-bill charges.
Staff in the seven municipalities sharing sewage treatment have agreed on the cost-sharing formula, the CRD report said.
If it's approved, municipalities would divvy up their share of capital costs based upon usage projected to 2030. Operating costs would be divided based on more recent flows. Municipalities that exceed projected use would face financial penalties, but also have the ability to buy unused capacity from other communities, the report said.
Plans for the treatment system include a facility at Esquimalt's McLoughlin Point and a biosolids facility at Hartland Landfill. Building contracts have yet to be awarded, but is scheduled for completion by 2018.
Under the cost-sharing formula, Oak Bay house-holds could pay more because the municipality's old leaky pipe system combines stormwater with sewage, said Blackwell.
The municipality will essentially pay to run some of its rainwater through the sewage-treatment plant.
"The place that is most unhappy is Oak Bay," Blackwell said.
Saanich has the population base to spread out costs and lower the household bill, she said.
Colwood is set to pay $310 per average household, the CRD report says. But only 14 per cent of its residents are on the sewer system.
The city must choose between passing "hefty bills" to the few residents connected to the sewage system, or charging everyone, including septic users, said Mayor Carol Hamilton.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins and Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin said Tuesday they generally support the cost-sharing formula. "User pay is a good model that's better than lumping everybody in," said Fortin.
Victoria will bill on a user-pay model. But Esquimalt will bill on everyone's property taxes, said Desjardins.
COST PROJECTIONS
How will Greater Victoria split costs for the new sewage treatment system?
Seven municipalities could divide an annual bill of $37 million, based upon current, projected and requested usage levels.
The Capital Regional District has estimated the average cost per household, based on 2017 levels.
- Victoria: $13.8 million a year; $353 per average household
- Saanich: $11.5 million; $232 per household
- Langford: $4.1 million; $332 per household
- Oak Bay: $2.5 million; $391 per household
- Esquimalt: $2.5 million; $311 per household
- Colwood: $1.4 million; $310 per household
- View Royal: $1.2 million; $240 per household
SOURCE: CAPITAL REGIONAL DISTRICT
rshaw@timescolonist.com
http://www2.canada.com/
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CINDY E. HARNETT
TIMES COLONIST
OCTOBER 6, 2012
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO TIMES COLONIST
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO TIMES COLONIST
Before a by election date has even been set, the sewage has hit the fan in the federal riding of Victoria as the Liberal and Green candidates have come out against a proposed secondary sewage treatment plant estimated to cost $782.7 million.
Both Green party candidate Donald Galloway and Liberal Paul Summerville, who is to be acclaimed as the party's candidate on Oct. 13, are against the project.
Summerville, an economist and adjunct professor at the University of Victoria's Peter Gustavson School of Business, said a huge local tax increase to help fund a sewage treatment plant that he believes is not needed "is fiscally and environmentally irresponsible."
Galloway, a UVic law professor and an advocate of refugee and immigrant rights, feels the same way.
"The Greens' position has not wavered on this," he said. "It's too costly and inconsistent with the need to conserve water use."
Galloway said he isn't against secondary sewage treatment, but rather the idea of one massive - and expensive - plant. He would also prefer to see more resource recovery.
The Capital Regional District's proposed secondary sewage treatment plant is scheduled to be completed by March 2018 and includes the McLoughlin Point wastewater treatment plant, a biosolids energy centre proposed for Saanich and piping-system upgrades.
The project addresses a provincial order to treat the core's sewage and federal regulations that require the CRD to have a new liquid waste management system by 2020.
The federal contribution for the project will be up to $253.4 million, the provincial contribution is a maximum of $248 million, and the CRD will provide the balance, estimated at $281.3 million. The CRD's portion and any cost overruns would be covered by taxpayers.
"These tax increases are going to show up in everybody's water bill and give the local economy another shot it doesn't need, particularly as the property market weakens," Summerville said. "It's bad economics, it's bad science, and it's bad for Victoria. And the argument that it is a done deal is, quite frankly, a lie. It isn't."
The CRD's Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee says the proposal is a "living document" and that people who don't like it should suggest changes rather than trying to argue the science or fight the regulations.
The NDP and the Conservatives are expected to select their candidates this month.
A date for the byelection to replace retired NDP MP Denise Savoie has not yet been set.
ceharnett@timescolonist.com
Read more:http://www.timescolonist.
Re: "You can help stop unnecessary sewage treatment," Oct. 3.
While vacationing in South Africa last year, we spent a week at a hotel in Cape Town. One evening we were joined at our table by a local businessman, a tourist from Belgium and another from India. We all shared where we were from.
Proudly we shared that we were from Victoria, on Vancouver Island, on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. Without a moment's hesitation, the man from South Africa said, "Oh yes, I've heard about Victoria; aren't they the ones that dump their untreated sewage into the Pacific Ocean?"
The other tourists piped up that they too had heard about our sewage-disposal habits in Victoria. These comments from people more than halfway across the world, and our "infamy," took us by surprise.
To save face, I threw in the comment that we would soon have a sewage-treatment plant, which seemed to assuage our embarrassment. Is this really what other countries think of us?
Sarah Roberts
Gordon Head
http://www.timescolonist.com/
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Both Green party candidate Donald Galloway and Liberal Paul Summerville, who is to be acclaimed as the party's candidate on Oct. 13, are against the project.
Summerville, an economist and adjunct professor at the University of Victoria's Peter Gustavson School of Business, said a huge local tax increase to help fund a sewage treatment plant that he believes is not needed "is fiscally and environmentally irresponsible."
Galloway, a UVic law professor and an advocate of refugee and immigrant rights, feels the same way.
"The Greens' position has not wavered on this," he said. "It's too costly and inconsistent with the need to conserve water use."
Galloway said he isn't against secondary sewage treatment, but rather the idea of one massive - and expensive - plant. He would also prefer to see more resource recovery.
The Capital Regional District's proposed secondary sewage treatment plant is scheduled to be completed by March 2018 and includes the McLoughlin Point wastewater treatment plant, a biosolids energy centre proposed for Saanich and piping-system upgrades.
The project addresses a provincial order to treat the core's sewage and federal regulations that require the CRD to have a new liquid waste management system by 2020.
The federal contribution for the project will be up to $253.4 million, the provincial contribution is a maximum of $248 million, and the CRD will provide the balance, estimated at $281.3 million. The CRD's portion and any cost overruns would be covered by taxpayers.
"These tax increases are going to show up in everybody's water bill and give the local economy another shot it doesn't need, particularly as the property market weakens," Summerville said. "It's bad economics, it's bad science, and it's bad for Victoria. And the argument that it is a done deal is, quite frankly, a lie. It isn't."
The CRD's Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee says the proposal is a "living document" and that people who don't like it should suggest changes rather than trying to argue the science or fight the regulations.
The NDP and the Conservatives are expected to select their candidates this month.
A date for the byelection to replace retired NDP MP Denise Savoie has not yet been set.
ceharnett@timescolonist.com
Read more:http://www.timescolonist.
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LETTER: VICTORIA'S SEWAGE HABITS KNOWN INTERNATIONALLY
SARAH ROBERTS
LETTER: VICTORIA'S SEWAGE HABITS KNOWN INTERNATIONALLY
SARAH ROBERTS
TIMES COLONIST
OCTOBER 5, 2012
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO TIMES COLONIST
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO TIMES COLONIST
Re: "You can help stop unnecessary sewage treatment," Oct. 3.
While vacationing in South Africa last year, we spent a week at a hotel in Cape Town. One evening we were joined at our table by a local businessman, a tourist from Belgium and another from India. We all shared where we were from.
Proudly we shared that we were from Victoria, on Vancouver Island, on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. Without a moment's hesitation, the man from South Africa said, "Oh yes, I've heard about Victoria; aren't they the ones that dump their untreated sewage into the Pacific Ocean?"
The other tourists piped up that they too had heard about our sewage-disposal habits in Victoria. These comments from people more than halfway across the world, and our "infamy," took us by surprise.
To save face, I threw in the comment that we would soon have a sewage-treatment plant, which seemed to assuage our embarrassment. Is this really what other countries think of us?
Sarah Roberts
Gordon Head
http://www.timescolonist.com/
-----------------------------
LETTER: IS THE GORGE ACTUALLY SAFE FOR SWIMMING? (Newcomb)
Letters
FOCUS magazine (page 6)
October 2012
Rob Wipond’s September article on stormwater contamination in the Gorge is excellent!
The startling 2007 map of CRD stormwater problem discharges [shows] how many storm-
water drains in the Gorge require action to reduce public health and environmental risks.
Those who believe that the incredibly expensive CRD sewage treatment plant will
reduce stormwater contamination risks will be very disappointed to learn that the
unnecessary sewage plant doesn’t treat stormwater.
That’s another expensive infrastructure project, albeit one that is more worthwhile than the
expensive, environmentally-insignificant sewage treatment plant.
John Newcomb
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LETTER: FINANCIAL AUDIT OF SEWAGE PLANT NEEDED (Newcomb)
What kind of a wonky, wasteful sewage treatment plant project is this when the estimated cost of the "pivotal" sewage treatment plant is less (at $210 million) than the cost of administration, program management and financing ($221 million)?
Indeed, the currently estimated cost of the whole project ($782 million, not including HST) is now more than three times the cost of the sewage treatment plant itself.
While the CRD is shamefully avoiding a rigorous environmental impact assessment for this mega-project, they should not be allowed to also escape a sound financial audit of so many of these exploding project expenses that have nothing to do with treating any sewage.
No wonder businesses see it as a huge "bonanza."
Our current marine-based sewage treatment system works well and is economically and environmentally sustainable but we can see now that this land-based sewage treatment project is on track to become a mammoth white elephant at the entrance to Victoria Harbour and through the neighbourhoods of James Bay and Esquimalt.
John Newcomb
Victoria
JOHN NEWCOMB
TIMES COLONIST
OCTOBER 4, 2012
Re: "Dreams of sewage-plant bonanza draw crowd," Sept. 29.
What kind of a wonky, wasteful sewage treatment plant project is this when the estimated cost of the "pivotal" sewage treatment plant is less (at $210 million) than the cost of administration, program management and financing ($221 million)?
Indeed, the currently estimated cost of the whole project ($782 million, not including HST) is now more than three times the cost of the sewage treatment plant itself.
While the CRD is shamefully avoiding a rigorous environmental impact assessment for this mega-project, they should not be allowed to also escape a sound financial audit of so many of these exploding project expenses that have nothing to do with treating any sewage.
No wonder businesses see it as a huge "bonanza."
Our current marine-based sewage treatment system works well and is economically and environmentally sustainable but we can see now that this land-based sewage treatment project is on track to become a mammoth white elephant at the entrance to Victoria Harbour and through the neighbourhoods of James Bay and Esquimalt.
John Newcomb
Victoria
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END
