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CONTENTS OF THIS BLOG:
ARESST ACTION:
- TALK ON GREY WATER, 7 MARCH, 7PM
CONTENTS OF THIS BLOG:
ARESST ACTION:
- TALK ON GREY WATER, 7 MARCH, 7PM
- PUBLIC TOWN HALL MEET, 11 MARCH WITH RANDALL GARRISON, MP
CRD-RELATED SEWAGE & RELATED NEWS:
- COLWOOD COMPLAINS TO CRD OVER SEWAGE COSTS
CRD-RELATED SEWAGE & RELATED NEWS:
- COLWOOD COMPLAINS TO CRD OVER SEWAGE COSTS
- CALGARY CITY SEWAGE SYSTEM CAN'T KEEP UP WITH BIOSOLIDS SURGE FROM POPULATION BOOM
- DAWSON SEWAGE PLANT PLAGUED BY BUGS
- MURRAY RANKIN MAKES SEWAGE PLAN EXCUSES
LETTERS:
- SEND IN YOUR LETTERS!
LETTERS:
- SEND IN YOUR LETTERS!
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ARESST ACTION:
TALK ON GREY WATER, 7 MARCH, 7PM
Emerging Green Builders Victoria:
Our speaker will be Gord Baird from Eco-sense. He has spoken at EGB many times in the past.
Gord will cover a number of things related to grey water:
- what is grey water?
- why is it important?
- how can we harvest it?
- introduction to grey water system design
It has been said that water is life. We cannot live for more than four or five days without it, so securing access to water is vital. In addition to speaking about grey water, Gord will walk us through the procedure to design a grey water harvesting system for your home (don't worry, no calculators are required). While there are a number of variables involved in a grey water system, the procedure is simpler than you might think; and having a practical tool in your pocket just might come in handy.
DETAILS:
When: Thursday, March 7th, 7-9pm
Where: Burnside Gorge Community Centre, 471 Cecelia Road
Who: All of you!
Refreshments will be provided.
Please forward this to anyone who might be interested, and RSVP.
We hope to see you there!
Gord will cover a number of things related to grey water:
- what is grey water?
- why is it important?
- how can we harvest it?
- introduction to grey water system design
It has been said that water is life. We cannot live for more than four or five days without it, so securing access to water is vital. In addition to speaking about grey water, Gord will walk us through the procedure to design a grey water harvesting system for your home (don't worry, no calculators are required). While there are a number of variables involved in a grey water system, the procedure is simpler than you might think; and having a practical tool in your pocket just might come in handy.
DETAILS:
When: Thursday, March 7th, 7-9pm
Where: Burnside Gorge Community Centre, 471 Cecelia Road
Who: All of you!
Refreshments will be provided.
Please forward this to anyone who might be interested, and RSVP.
We hope to see you there!
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PUBLIC TOWN HALL MEET, 11 MARCH WITH RANDALL GARRISON, MP
"Federal Budget 2013: What are the implications of this federal budget and the last two OmniBus federal budgets?"
7-9pm, in Owen Room, Pearkes Recreation Centre, 3100 Tillicum Road.
Meet Garrison and give him your input on the Harper Budget.
Phone 250-405-6550 for questions or comment.
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COLWOOD COMPLAINS TO CRD OVER SEWAGE COSTS
Kyle Wells
Goldstream News Gazette
February 28, 2013
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO GOLDSTREAM GAZETTE
Sewage treatment costs are once again causing headaches for Colwood city councillors as they struggle to figure out how residents should have to pay for initial capital costs.
The Capital Regional District has asked Colwood for $212,000 in 2013 to cover capital costs for the project. Colwood mayor Carol Hamilton said the cost is unexpected and, in her view, excessive.
Hamilton said this could amount to a 100 per cent increase in sewage costs to current sewage users in 2013 year alone. When spread out across all taxpayers in the municipality, this one charge alone amounts to approximately a two per cent tax increase, said Hamilton.
“That’s before I can look at fixing a pothole, that’s before I can tend to a garden. Where does it stop?”
Council is sending a letter to the CRD raising concerns over the costs for 2013 and laying out the impact on Colwood residents.
“We need to have an understanding, we need to have these folks hear, they need to see what it means for our community.”
Hamilton said she is not a sewer user and is as upset as anyone else that when all is said and done she could be paying as much as $300 to $400 per year for the community’s sewage treatment.
She worries this will hurt real estate in the community, as the idea of paying that much into a service not being received might turn people off moving to the community.
“There is a ripple effect of extreme proportions, in my view, with this formula.”
In December council voted to have all future capacity paid for by the entire municipality as a parcel tax. An official decision on how current users will pay for treatment is not yet solidified.
With the initial charges now known, the final decision has been put over until the next council meeting, Monday, March 11, when more information from staff should be available.
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CALGARY: CITY SEWAGE SYSTEM CAN'T KEEP UP WITH BIOSOLIDS SURGE FROM POPULATION BOOM
Population growth fills sludge lagoons to capacity
Sherri Zickefoose
Calgary Herald
February 28, 2013
CALGARY — The city’s booming population growth is filling more than the suburbs: Calgary’s sewage lagoons are also close to overflowing.
The city pumps its biosolids from wastewater treatment facilities into the southeast Shepard sludge lagoons. Even through the city has a sophisticated system for turning sludge into fertilizer for farmer’s fields, the treatment program cannot keep up with the increasing volume of biosolids, the utilities committee heard Wednesday.
“We are very close to capacity for biosolids and we’re running out of room. We’re a growing city,” said Ald. Brian Pincott.
Planning for a massive composting facility partnered with water and waste services could be the answer.
”One of our solutions is our composting facility and looking how we partner. It’s about efficiency and cost savings,” Pincott said.
“The environmental liabilities of having organics in the landfill are astounding.”
Council will address the issue of composting and biosolids at its April 15 strategic planning session.
For more than 25 years, the city has been turning treated sludge into nutrient-rich fertilizer. Calgro, the city’s biosolids-to-land program, is a joint effort with the province to use environmentally-friendly alternatives to dumping biosolids in the landfill.
Each year, the city produces nearly 20 million kilograms, or 9,500 tanker truckloads, of biosolids fertilizer. It’s spread on local farming crops as organic fertilizer.
Concerns over pharmaceuticals and other contaminants detected in biosolids is cause for worry, said Ald. Druh Farrell.
“I think we just don’t know the impacts of this in our environment. It sounds good that we’re putting nutrients in the soil, but we don’t know what else is in there,” she said.
The city prepared a master plan for waste organic materials and biosolids in 2011. It calls for one or more alternatives to what it now uses.
City administrators said a future joint composting facility that would partner water and waste departments would be efficient and “support long-term certainty and resiliency for biosolids management.”
http://www.calgaryherald.com/
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DAWSON SEWAGE PLANT PLAGUED BY BUGS
Jacqueline Ronson
Yukon News
February 25, 2013
Officials are questioning the viability of Dawson City’s new wastewater treatment plant after sewage blocked up in the system and flowed out the back door earlier this month.
“The entire process train plugged up with sludge causing a significant amount of wastewater to flood the degritting room and pour out the doors into the adjacent parking lot,” wrote Norm Carlson, superintendent of public works, in his report to council. “This blockage caused the entire sanitary system in Dawson to back up.”
“We’re very thankful for the quick response of our public works team,” said Mayor Wayne Potoroka. “Without them, I shudder to think what sort of catastrophe we would have had on our hands.”
The cause of the blockage is still being investigated.
The plant is currently being operated by Corix under a $25-million contract with the Yukon government. Included in the contract cost was one full year of operations and staffing.
Dawson had agreed to take over operations after that trial year, in August 2013. This period was to allow training of local staff as well as to assess the cost of operations.
But Dawson officials say they still have no idea how much the plant will cost to operate, and proper training has not been completed.
“In my strong opinion, the operations of the plant are not well understood at this time,” wrote Carlson in his report. “Passing most of the water licence parameters with weak winter wastewater does not necessarily mean that the plant is operating as intended or that it will be able to address the increased sewage loading coming with spring. There are many unknowns ahead.”
In keeping with the spirit of the agreement, the Yukon government should pay for a full year of problem-free operations, said Potoroka.
“It’s not a year of optimizing the plant, or working out the bugs or anything like that, but it’s actual operation.”
The mayor is worried that runaway costs could cripple the town’s ability to keep rates low for residents, he said.
“We’re a small town. People pay a lot of money for the luxury of water and sewer in this community. We have to ensure that whatever sewage treatment we have is affordable, because if it’s not then you run the risk of losing ratepayers to communities where there may not be rates as high as the ones in Dawson City.”
The Klondike’s Liberal MLA, Sandy Silver, has also called on Public Works Minister Wade Istchenko to extend government funding for the plant indefinitely.
There have been several issues with the plant’s operations as it is tested in Dawson’s particular climate, said Silver
“It’s a new facility. Nothing like this exists in the Yukon.”
The plant’s operation depends on maintaining a healthy population of bacteria, or “bugs,” to help process the incoming sewage.
“It’s kind of neat,” said Silver. “In the final stage of the facility, you can actually see the bugs.”
But keeping good levels of bacteria in the system has been a challenge, he said.
For one, operations of the plant began later in the summer than planned.
Opening the plant earlier, when Dawson’s population would have been higher, could have helped ensure the quantity of sewage needed to keep the bugs healthy.
Secondly, Dawson operates a bleeder system through the winter. It runs fresh water through the town’s homes and buildings constantly to keep pipes from freezing.
But the result of this is that water coming into the treatment plant is more dilute than it otherwise would be, and this too could affect the bacteria populations.
Until these issues are worked out, the town should not have to shoulder the cost of the facility, said Silver.
He has asked Istchenko to commit to one full year of problem-free operations before the plant is handed over to the town.
“I’m making the suggestion that the city doesn’t get that responsibility thrown upon them yet, until we’ve gone through a complete year with - and pardon the pun - no bugs.”
Silver is hoping for no bugs in the operation of the system, but of course lots of bugs in the system itself, he said.
Contact Jacqueline Ronson at
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MURRAY RANKIN MAKES SEWAGE PLAN EXCUSES
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LETTERS:
- SEND IN YOUR LETTERS!
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END.
