ARESST ACTION:
- CRD SEWAGE COMMITTEE MEETS 14 NOV - COME TO STOPABADPLAN!
- TRAFFIC JAM AT ESQUIMALT COUNCIL (ARESST PRESENTATION DISCUSSED)
- SEWAGE ADS AXED AFTER COMPLAINTS
CRD-RELATED SEWAGE NEWS:
- SEWAGE, POT HOT TOPICS FOR CANDIDATES
- VICTORIA BYELECTION CANDIDATES SQUARE OFF
LETTERS:
- OTTAWA SHOULD PROVIDE LAND FOR SEWAGE PLANT
- CONSIDER HYDRO SITE FOR SEWAGE PLANT
- SPEND SEWAGE MONEY ON PROJECTS THAT MATTER
- CRD SEWAGE ADS WASTE TAXPAYER MONEY
- TREATMENT REGULATIONS HAVE CHANGED OVER TIME
- TREATMENT PLANT TALKS ARE NOT DEMOCRATIC
- AD CAMPAIGNS AREN'T PUBLIC DEBATE
- REGIONAL GOVERNANCE NEEDS FIXING
GENERAL SEWAGE-RELATED NEWS:
- HOME HEATING-OIL TANKS AN ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT
- CLEANUP SET FOR GRAVING DOCK
- DILBERT ON CEO SEWAGE
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ARESST ACTION:
Notice of Meeting on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 9:30 am
Board Room, 6th floor, 625 Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC
4. Presentations/Delegations
- a. Bryan Gilbert re Item 7
- b. Graydon Gibson re Item 7
5.Wastewater Technologies – Rob Simm, Stantec
6. Motions for Which Notice Has Been Given (EWW 12-73)
Motions for Which Notice Has Been Given
1) Core Area Wastewater Treatment Program – Director Derman
2) Core Area Wastewater Treatment Program – Director Desjardins
MOTIONS: http://www.crd.bc.ca/reports/corearealiquidwastem_/2012_/11november14_/2012november14item06/2012november14item06.pdf
7. Core Area Wastewater Treatment Program Commission Bylaw (EWW 12-72)
BYLAW: http://www.crd.bc.ca/reports/corearealiquidwastem_/2012_/11november14_/2012november14item08/2012november14item08.pdf
http://www.crd.bc.ca/agendas/corearealiquidwastem_/2012_/index.htm
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TRAFFIC JAM AT ESQUIMALT COUNCIL (ARESST PRESENTATION DISCUSSED)
Daniel Palmer
Victoria News
November 08, 2012
Around 150 people crowded into Esquimalt’s council chambers Monday, primarily to hear decisions on a trio of long-awaited and contentious traffic issues.
Deleted unrelated info about traffic jams.
Sewage discussion also attracts crowd
Some members of the crowd attending the Monday night council meeting were there to hear John Bergbusch.
The chair of the Association for Responsible and Environmentally Sustainable Sewage Treatment, speak about why the group opposes the planned $783-million treatment plant for the Capital Region.
Bergbusch said there will be inevitable cost overruns with the project, and that unlike every other infrastructure project in the province, the additional burden will fall on CRD taxpayers.
He also visited View Royal and Victoria council this week to give the same presentation, and plans to speak to Colwood, Langford and Oak Bay councils in the coming weeks.
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SEWAGE ADS AXED AFTER COMPLAINTS
ROB SHAW
NOVEMBER 5, 2012, page A3.
The Capital Regional District has scrapped a sewage-treatment advertising campaign amid complaints that the pro-treatment message was inappropriate during the Victoria federal byelection race.
CRD chairman Geoff Young ordered the radio and newspaper ads suspended Monday, after an email campaign by an anti-treatment group.
“There clearly are some members of the public that are sensitive to it,” Young said. “If we are going to take the view that we should not be trying to influence a federal election result, then we should be ultra-careful with regard to our advertising.”
The byelection to replace Victoria NDP MP Denise Savoie, who stepped down this summer for health reasons, is set for Nov. 26.
The CRD ads — which ran in the Times Colonist, community newspapers and on local radio stations — said the region’s current practice of discharging sewage into the ocean creates pollution levels 10 times higher than the allowable limit under new federal wastewater regulations. The ads also promote the job-creation and heat-recovery benefits of the plant.
A plan for a large sewage-treatment newspaper insert on Nov. 14 has also been cancelled, the CRD said. It was part of up to $100,000 a year budgeted for sewage-treatment advertising, according to the CRD.
“This isn’t an appropriate use of tax dollars,” said Richard Atwell, who organized a form-letter email campaign against the CRD. The advertising shouldn’t coincide with the byelection, nor should it run when CRD politicians are refusing to attend public debates on the issue, said Atwell, whose group is called stopabadplan.ca.
The B.C. government ordered the CRD to pursue sewage treatment in 2006. The region is planning a single plant at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt by 2018, at an estimated cost of $783 million. The federal and provincial governments have promised two-thirds funding, but local governments are on the hook for any cost overruns.
Liberal candidate Paul Summerville is campaigning on a promise to fight the “billion dollar boondoggle” by getting the CRD an exemption from current federal wastewater regulations. That could designate the region a lower wastewater risk and push off treatment plans.
Summerville called the CRD advertisements “biased” and said he was glad they were scrapped.
“It’s a victory for science,” he said. “What I’d like to see is for someone on the CRD ... to step forward and talk about why they want to do this. This is the frustrating thing — there hasn’t been a public debate.”
NDP candidate Murray Rankin, an environmental lawyer, has said the CRD can’t get a federal exemption. Green party candidate Donald Galloway opposes the CRD’s treatment plans, while Conservative candidate Dale Gann has said treatment should proceed because of regulations and available federal funding.
After the byelection, the CRD’s sewage committee will debate if the advertising is appropriate to run in the future, Young said.
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CRD-RELATED SEWAGE NEWS:
SEWAGE, POT HOT TOPICS FOR CANDIDATES
Sandra McCulloch
Times Colonist
November 08, 2012
An overflow crowd of voters quizzed the four major candidates vying for the federal seat representing Victoria on Wednesday night.
People filled every chair in the James Bay New Horizons auditorium. Others stood around the room or sat on the floor while those turned away for lack of space huddled around open windows and listened from the lawn.
At the meeting were Donald Galloway of the Green Party, Dale Gann of the Conservatives, Murray Rankin of the NDP and Paul Summerville of the Liberals.
Philip Ney of the Christian Heritage party and Art Lowe of the Libertarian party are also on the ballot but didn't take part in the event.
The byelection, set for Nov. 26, is to replace NDP MP Denise Savoie, who stepped down in August, citing health reasons.
On the topic of sewage, Gann said he supports a treatment plant in Victoria. "I don't think it's acceptable for sewage to be going into the beautiful Strait of Juan de Fuca," he said.
Rankin said he supports sewage treatment, but that he's not buying the specifics of the current plan.
"I think we need to be more cost-effective ... but I do think it's time to get on with this in this community," he said.
Any decisions on sewage-treatment options should be based on science, Galloway said. "We don't know enough about pollution in the Juan de Fuca Strait to justify spending $1 billion."
Summerville opposed enhanced sewage treatment, saying there are many myths about Victoria's system of screening effluent through the outfall.
"Raw sewage is not pumped into our harbour - that's a complete myth," he said. "That's the problem with politics and policy that's based on image and not science."
DELETED UNRELATED THEMES
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VICTORIA BYELECTION CANDIDATES SQUARE OFF
Daniel Palmer
Victoria News
November 09, 2012 2:25 PM
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO VICTORIA NEWS
Anyone questioning the state of democracy in Victoria need only have dropped by the New Horizons building in James Bay on Wednesday.
The lineup stretched halfway down the 200-block of Menzies St. for the first official all-candidates meeting in the federal byelection race.
About a dozen of the 200 people turned away at the door gathered around open windows to hear the four major candidates answer a hodgepodge of audience questions for two-and-a-half hours.
In attendance were Donald Galloway (Green), Dale Gann (Conservative), Murray Rankin (NDP) and Paul Summerville (Liberal).
Art Lowe of the Libertarian Party and Philip Ney of the Christian Heritage Party were absent, although all candidates were extended an invitation, said organizer and moderator Marg Gardiner.
After opening remarks, Gardiner launched into the first hot-button issue of the election: the Capital Region's $783-million secondary sewage treatment project.
"It's unacceptable to pour raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca," Gann said. "When this community said it was a priority, our government stepped up to the plate and brought their third (of the funding)."
The NDP also supports secondary sewage treatment, although Rankin said he believes savings can still be found in the current project.
"It's time to get on with it," Rankin said.
Summerville, the only candidate outright opposed to the current project, said the decision to implement secondary sewage treatment is "based on image, not science."
He compared the underground pipe system that would connect Clover Point, a wastewater treatment plant at Macaulay Point and a biosolids centre at Hartland landfill to a "mini-Enbridge pipeline in our own backyard."
Galloway took a measured approach to sewage treatment considerations, saying any decisions need to be based on scientific fact. He does believe the current plan is not the right plan.
DELETED UNRELATED THEMES.
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LETTER: OTTAWA SHOULD PROVIDE LAND FOR SEWAGE PLANT
Alex Murdoch
Times Colonist
November 06, 2012
Re: "Esquimalt reticence a sewage hurdle" and "DND lands hold great potential," Nov. 3.
About two years ago, I co-authored a Times Colonist opinion piece supporting Esquimalt council in its opposition to the McLoughlin Point site.
One co-author was experienced in municipal wastewater systems, another in resource recovery, myself in marine-pollution issues. Our opinions were based on sound engineering principles and accumulated experience. No new facts have emerged to change our opinions: McLoughlin is a bad site and the plan that incorporates it is a bad plan.
I was once told by a Capital Regional District engineer that "everyone [connected with the planning process] knows the plant should go at Macaulay Point but, unfortunately, the DND will not release the land." A Macaulay location would provide the space for a modern, expandable, energy-efficient integrated plant and eliminate the need for a double pipeline to Hartland; it would reduce the disruption of neighbourhoods during construction, the risk of spills and the cost (both financial and environmental) of construction and operation.
As the editorial noted, the release of lands surplus to DND needs would benefit Greater Victoria in many ways, and this is an important one. We have been told repeatedly that we must have land-based secondary treatment because new federal regulations require it. If the federal government deems this essential, and has committed a significant portion of the cost, it should also be willing to provide the necessary land.
Alex Murdoch
Victoria
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LETTER: CONSIDER HYDRO SITE FOR SEWAGE PLANT
Ken Drum
Times Colonist
November 06, 2012
Re: "Esquimalt reticence a sewage hurdle," Nov. 3.
Another article concerning the Capital Regional District wanting McLoughlin Point rezoned for the proposed sewage treatment facility has me wondering again: Why hasn't the old Hydro site at the end of Store Street in Rock Bay been considered?
It's already zoned and is in the process of being cleaned up with different levels of government throwing money at it. It is the same size as McLoughlin Point (larger, if the concrete plant is relocated), has far better access by road and water and is central to the area it would service.
Ken Drum
Esquimalt
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LETTER: SPEND SEWAGE MONEY ON PROJECTS THAT MATTER
Saanich News
November 07, 2012
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO SAANICH NEWS
I’ve read the report that Saanich Coun. Judy Brownoff quotes in her letter. The effects of our effluent are minute and confined to the area immediately around the outfall diffusers. Beyond that the vast Strait of Juan de Fuca is fine.
Brownoff and other CRD directors are proposing a billion dollar sledgehammer to kill a fly.
The construction of the proposed system will require a good amount of pipeline to be laid underground through Beacon Hill Park and James Bay, under the harbour and underground all the way out to Hartland in Saanich. The construction alone will add a lot of greenhouse gases to the planetary eco-system.
The proposed system will require constant power to pump effluent uphill from the collection point. Another minus, if the intent is to minimize our regional environmental footprint.
We just experienced a notable earthquake. The consequences of a pipeline break under the Inner Harbour or along the 18 kilometre route to the Hartland Landfill due to a natural disaster would be catastrophic.
The proposed system will bury the concentrated sludge near the Hartland Landfill. That’s not treating sewage, that’s simply hiding it. While we are cleaning up one contaminated site at Rock Bay we are promptly creating another one in Saanich.
The cure being proposed for a problem that has yet to materialize in a meaningful way is worse than the problem.
The vast amounts of our money that Brownoff and some of her co-directors are prepared to waste would be better spent on other environmental projects that truly mattered.
Mike Laplante
Saanich
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LETTER: CRD SEWAGE ADS WASTE TAXPAYER MONEY
Saanich News
November 07, 2012
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO SAANICH NEWS
The CRD has started to run expensive advertisements in local newspapers and these ads promise that a presumably more expensive insert will appear on Nov. 14, the same day that the Core Area Liquid Waste Management committee will be meeting.
A referendum in 1992 and subsequent radio polls have shown about two-thirds of the citizens of the CRD to be consistently opposed to land-based secondary sewage treatment.
Many people ask why we don’t have another referendum on this project.
In 2004 the regional liabilities regulation was passed that prevented regional districts from obtaining the approval of electors. With the stroke a pen, this democratic right was simply stripped away from us for obvious reasons.
Those of us who see nothing but flaws in the land-based secondary sewage treatment plan proposed by the CRD are appalled at the idea of the CRD using our own tax dollars to run these newspaper and radio ads to convince us otherwise. This is disgraceful.
I’m finally starting the see the benefits of amalgamation: no more CRD.
Richard Atwell
Saanich
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LETTER: TREATMENT REGULATIONS HAVE CHANGED OVER TIME
Saanich News
November 07, 2012
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO SAANICH NEWS
Re: Tax increase poor treatment (Writer’s Block, Oct. 19)
Recently Edward Hill wrote a column on the sewage treatment plant. In it he stated that the B.C. and Washington state governments did a study in 1994 which showed the effluent concentrations from the Victoria outfall were less than the effluent discharges from Vancouver and Seattle, even though these two cities had sewage treatment systems already in operation.
Let us assume that all of the effluent concentrations in the 1994 study complied with the government regulations.
I think everyone would have said that because our effluent concentrations were already less than Vancouver and Seattle, we would not require further treatment.
I am sure that the most recent records by the Ocean and Sciences group in Victoria would be able to confirm if there has been any changes to the results of the 1994 study.
I would agree to the sewage treatment plant if we are destroying the environment, but if we are enhancing the environment instead of destroying it, we should be screaming from the rooftops until the federal and provincial governments tell us why we are required to put in a billion dollar treatment plant.
John Skinner
Colwood
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LETTER: TREATMENT PLANT TALKS ARE NOT DEMOCRATIC
Saanich News
November 07, 2012
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO SAANICH NEWS
Re: Politicos call for study of sewer treatment (News, Oct. 26)
For quite a long time I have been observing and reading and listening to the debate about the federally mandated on-land sewage treatment plan for Greater Victoria and have noticed that there is varied opinion about this.
City staff have recommended extensive consultation with property owners prior to implementation, which would begin in 2014 at the earliest.
From what I can understand with the previous sentence is that even after consultation the plan will be implemented. This is not consultation and it is obvious that government at municipal, provincial and federal levels have no regard for consultation and truly plan to implement without consent.
What little amount of democracy we have left in this country is quickly being eroded and this is not limited to waste water treatment.
On the subject of sewage treatment, it is unbelievable how gullible our municipal politicians have become and how consistently councils have been eager to ignore science and experts in the field.
What we really need is a federal exemption to mandated land-based treatment for most areas of Greater Victoria and what we really need are people to say an emphatic “no” to this folly.
Randall Filan
Victoria
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LETTER REGIONAL GOVERNANCE NEEDS FIXING
John Vickers
Times Colonist
November 08, 2012
Re: "Sewage ads axed after complaints," Nov. 6.
As a conservative liberal, I am disappointed by federal liberal candidate Paul Summerville's position on sewage treatment.
"Let's wait for inventions not yet invented to solve our longer term sewage treatment issue" is basically what he is saying. I certainly am not part of his "billion-dollar boondoggle" freight train.
What needs fixing, if anything, is regional governance through amalgamation and a taxation system that treats us as equals, particularly for undertakings like sewage treatment. We increasingly have what amounts to inward-looking neighbourhoods with their own governments.
Do we really need four city halls including four mayors, four city administrators, four police chiefs and four fire chiefs within 10 kilometres of the Blue Bridge?
John Vickers
Victoria
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LETTER: AD CAMPAIGNS AREN'T PUBLIC DEBATE
Catherine Van Humbeck
Times Colonist
November 08, 2012
Re: "Sewage ads axed after complaints," Nov. 6.
What wonderful news that the pro-sewage treatment ads are cancelled (at least while the byelection in Victoria is on) under pressure from the public.
Maybe it's time to cancel all government-paid ads that use our own money to try to convince us of something unpalatable or disliked. We seem to have ad campaigns instead of government debate and any real input from the public.
It's time for the public, for whom the politicians are supposed to work, to be heard.
Catherine Van Humbeck
Victoria
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GENERAL SEWAGE-RELATED NEWS:
HOME HEATING-OIL TANKS AN ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT
Recent spills a warning that aging systems need a 21st-century update
Calvin Sandborn and Naomi Kovak And Trevor Johnson
Times Colonist
November 08, 2012
The heating-oil tank at your house may pose a major threat to local salmon streams - and to your fiscal well-being. There ought to be a law.
Last November, a home-heating system spilled more than 1,000 litres of oil into Swan Creek and Colquitz River during the salmon run. Dorothy Chambers, a Colquitz stewardship volunteer, described the results:
"The fish fence is saturated with reeking oil and all of today's coho are dead. What a sight for the families who came to watch the salmon release. Twenty-four large dead coho in three days, carrying eggs which will not hatch and will affect this run for years to come."
Meanwhile, the homeowner faced a potential cleanup bill of more than $60,000.
That November spill was not an anomaly. Two months later, a fuel company pumped oil into a Saanich basement through an oil supply pipe that had been left when the old tank was removed. The oil contaminated the property and ran into the storm sewers, which connect to local water bodies. Just three weeks after that, another 634 litres of oil spilled into Colquitz River from a ruptured fuel line on yet another home-oil tank system.
By March of this year, the Saanich director of public works described the problem posed by six heating oil spills in Saanich in just six months, stating: "Responding to oil spills has become almost full-time for our drainage guys since November." Unfortunately, such spills find their way into municipal storm sewers and, eventually, into local streams.
A big part of the problem is that heating-oil tanks and plumbing are getting old, rusting out and failing. The other part of the problem is that current law fails to prevent these accidents.
This is why the University of Victoria Environmental Law Clinic has worked with the Gorge Tillicum Community Association to propose a solution to this important environmental challenge. Based on a review of what other jurisdictions have done to address the problem, the clinic recommends that the province and local governments legislate:
- Mandatory regular inspection of tank systems.
- Establishment of government-issued ID tag systems that confirm a tank and system is in good shape and not obsolete. Delivery of fuel to tanks without a valid tag should be prohibited.
- Minimum physical standards for tanks and plumbing, and maximum life spans for heating-oil tanks.
- A requirement that installers of new home heating systems ensure that existing oil tanks are properly decommissioned. Note that this is not just an environmental problem. It is also a serious issue for any homeowner who has an oil tank on their property. Most homeowner insurance policies do not cover such oil spills, and these spills can be extraordinarily expensive. For example, in one recent B.C. spill, the property owner faced a clean-up cost of more than $200,000. Such accidents have the potential to bankrupt a family.
Government should consider making oil companies pay for spills when the company has filled a flawed tank. This would provide companies with a powerful incentive to carefully check before they pump oil into a system. In addition, B.C. should establish a public insurance fund - paid for by a surcharge on fuel - to pay for spills from the property of homeowners who register their tanks with government. In Washington state, such a system helps authorities keep track of where old tanks are so they can be properly decommissioned when the time comes.
With appropriate law reform, we can work together to address this important threat to the environment and to unsuspecting homeowners.
Calvin Sandborn is legal director and Naomi Kovak and Trevor Johnson are articled students at the UVic Environmental Law Clinic.
The Environmental Law Clinic and the Gorge Tillicum Community Association are co-hosting a public forum on this issue on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the UVic Faculty of Law, Room 159. Homeowners, local and provincial officials, community groups and oil companies are invited to debate this important public issue.
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CLEANUP SET FOR GRAVING DOCK
Carla Wilson
Times Colonist
November 09, 2012
Ottawa is seeking bids for a $44-million project to dredge up and remove decades worth of contaminated sediment at Esquimalt Graving Dock.
Contaminants include everything from arsenic and lead to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the federal government said in a release.
It is the second stage of a massive environmental cleanup at the facility.
Since 1927, military and civilian ships have been scraped, painted, repaired and built at the federally owned graving dock.
Also announced was a separate $101 million in federal money to be spent on modernization over five years. Private companies such as Victoria Shipyards, now refitting frigates and upgrading submarines, lease the graving dock.
In September, Victoria-based Salish Sea Joint Venture won a $6.5-million contract to build a pile wall to stop erosion. That contract was the first of three phases to carry out the clean-up work.
Details of the second phase, the dredging work, were published Thursday. Bids must be submitted by Dec. 18. The third phase is to create new fish habitat.
It is not a standard dredging and disposal job, the federal government said. Sediments are "contaminated with various chemicals of concern and the contractor will be required to use extra care to conduct its work in a manner that is suitable for environmental cleanup ..."
The possibility of stirred-up sediments affecting water quality or decontaminating already cleaned areas is of "great concern." Work includes dredging 149,630 cubic metres of contaminated material to be disposed of at a permitted land-based disposal facility.
A mandatory site visit will be held Nov. 23. The work has an estimated value of $44.6 million.
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DILBERT ON CEO SEWAGE
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END
