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ACTION:
UPCOMING ACTIONS:
- CRD BOARD MEETS 5 JUNE - PRESENTATIONS PERMITTED
- ESQUIMALT BUCCANEER DAYS COOPERATION WITH ERA
PAST ACTIONS
- CRD SEWAGE COMMISSION - SEVERAL PRESENTATIONS MADE
CRD SEWAGE NEWS
- WE DEPEND ON REGIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE
- SEWAGE PROJECT PAUSE SOUGHT BY GREATER VICTORIA CITIZENS GROUP
- NEWS VIDEO OF MCLOUGHLIN PT TRUCK TRAFFIC ISSUE
- CFAX POLL 31 MAY-1 JUNE
LETTERS
- REPORT SETS DISTANCES FOR BIOSOLIDS FACILITY (Madden)
- DETAILS STILL MISSING FROM SEWAGE COVERAGE (Webber)
- OTHER CHOICES AVAILABLE FOR SEWAGE PLANTS (Hurkens)
- SEND IN YOUR LETTERS!
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ACTION:
UPCOMING ACTIONS:
http://www.crd.bc.ca/agendas/crdcommitteeofthewho_/2013_/index.htm
Meets June 5, 1:30pm
Board Room, 6th Floor,
625 Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
6. LIQUID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLANS-SLUDGE AND BIOSOLIDS MANAGEMENT
• That the Committee of the Whole recommend to the Capital Regional District Board:
1) That staff be directed to bring forward a report outlining the economic, social and environmental implications for both the core area liquid waste management program and other regional impacts to the Board for reconsideration of the sludge and biosolids management policy for the region.
http://www.crd.bc.ca/agendas/crdcommitteeofthewho_/2013_/index.htm
CRD Board meeting 5 June incamera:
http://www.crd.bc.ca/agendas/capitalregionaldistr_/2013_/index.htm
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ESQUIMALT BUCCANEER DAYS 7-9 JUNE -SAPB COOPERATION WITH ERA
STOP A BAD PLAN wishes to share table with Esquimalt Residents Association at Buccaneer Days to help inform and update Esquimalt residents on sewage plant and sewage sludge plant issues. Go to SABP facebook page for details and information on this action as it gets closer.
http://www.esquimaltbuccaneerdays.ca/
http://www.esquimaltbuccaneerdays.ca/
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PAST ACTIONS
CRD SEWAGE COMMISSION - SEVERAL PRESENTATIONS MADE
CTV Vancouver Island came to the Core Area Wastewater Treatment Program Commission meeting held at the City of Victoria Council Chambers:
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Audio of Kim Bellefontaine's interview with CFAX's Ian Jessop on May 29, 2013:
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CRD SEWAGE NEWS
WE DEPEND ON REGIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Op-ed writer Keiran (excerpt below) ignores critical issue that if higher level of sewage treatment should happen, it shouldn't be due to provincial-federal diktat but rather because there would be measurable improvement to marine environment WITHOUT significant negative impacts on air and land - including on the human communities who would live closest to sewage+sludge plants.
Keiran ignores the social injustice in apportioning hazardous regional land uses such as treatment plants into one community (ie, Esquimalt Vic West), especially where more equitable options exist (ie, distributed treatment), or lower-risk options (Hartland, Burnside)
Keiran:
"And, despite the protests, a higher level of wastewater treatment around here is going to happen. Federal and provincial governments have made the requirement clear and non-negotiable. And that service, in whatever form it happens, and that infrastructure, wherever the holding tanks and treatment plants are to be located, will need to be delivered and managed to all regional residents hooked up to the system now and in the future.":
http://www.timescolonist.com/
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SEWAGE PROJECT PAUSE SOUGHT BY GREATER VICTORIA CITIZENS GROUP
ROB SHAW
TIMES COLONIST
MAY 30, 2013
Greater Victoria’s commission of sewage experts got an earful from angry taxpayers who called Thursday for the megaproject to be paused and independently reviewed.
Representatives of the Sewage Treatment Action Group, a community group of concerned citizens, called on the commission to halt work on the sewage project and launch an arm’s-length examination into the $783-million project’s full life cycle costs over 50 years.
The group also sent a letter to B.C.’s auditor general, asking the office to audit the project to see if it’s in the best interest of taxpayers.
The current Capital Regional District sewage plan calls for a treatment facility at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt as well as a biosolids facility at either Hartland landfill in Saanich or Viewfield Road in Esquimalt. It’s in the first stages of tendering, with an estimated completion date of 2018.
Esquimalt residents have strongly opposed the Viewfield location for its proximity to local houses and schools, but the commission has said land acquisition and plant siting is not within its mandate to change.
The action group was one of several presenters to the seven-person commission of technical experts that controls day-to-day decision-making on the treatment project.
Some tried to portray the commission’s request for additional information from staff on sewage flows and costs as a lack of confidence in the project’s direction; commission members did not respond to that suggestion on Thursday.
Esquimalt resident Kim Bellefontaine urged the commission to continue to investigate options to improve the project, and outlined a series of questions on regulatory requirements, questionable economies of scale, a restricted vision for the project’s infrastructure and a lack of exploration of alternative sites such as agricultural land on Burnside Road West. The CRD board voted against looking at the Burnside property this month.
Bellefontaine said her concerns have previously “fallen on deaf ears” among regional politicians who sit on the CRD’s sewage committee. But the commission of experts took notes, made eye contact and appeared interested, she said.
“It was a refreshing change.”
Commission chairwoman Brenda Eaton, a former senior bureaucrat in the B.C. government, thanked the approximately 30 people at the meeting.
“We’re glad to see so much interest from the general public,” she said.
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NEWS VIDEO OF MCLOUGHLIN PT TRUCK TRAFFIC ISSUE
CTV Vancouver Island covers the McLoughlin Pt Sewage Plant truck traffic issues that will adversely affect the Ecole Macaulay:
http://youtu.be/IOg6-NI1AVk
Best quote: "People will only see those heavy trucks during construction".
http://youtu.be/IOg6-NI1AVk
Best quote: "People will only see those heavy trucks during construction".
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CFAX POLL 31 MAY-1 JUNE
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LETTERS
REPORT SETS DISTANCES FOR BIOSOLIDS FACILITY (Madden)
TIMES COLONIST
MAY 31, 2013
One need only read the Capital Regional District’s own report, “Land suitability for a Biosolids Facility in the Core Area of the Capital Regional District,” prepared by Westland Resources in September 2010 to realize that placing a biosolids treatment facility on Viewfield Road is not only preposterous, but outright offensive.
On page 13, the report clearly states: “Operation of a biosolids facility would not be functionally compatible with a residential neighbourhood.” Perhaps when the core area wastewater treatment committee read the report, they automatically added: “… not functionally compatible with a residential neighbourhood that I live in.”
The nearest home to the Viewfield Road site is 21 metres. Other provinces mandate a 300-metre buffer zone between biosolids facilities and residences.
It seems the committee ignores best practices and the communities it claims to serve. Since they disregard their own report, it stands to reason we can expect them to assume liability for the health, property and environmental damages that arise due to forcing a biosolids plant into a residential area.
Aaren Madden
Victoria
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DETAILS STILL MISSING FROM SEWAGE COVERAGE (Webber)
Letters
Victoria News, Saanich News, Oak Bay News, Goldstream Gazette
May 30, 2013
Re: Don’t pass the sewage buck (Editorial, May 15)
While I appreciate that the News continues to explore the sewage treatment issue, please reflect the complexity of the situation in your editorial.
Give us the details about the painstaking and costly studies that were undertaken, because it is my understanding that that is exactly the problem, there were little or no studies and much money has been spent with minimal community involvement.
And some of the studies that were done recommend a very different approach than the one the Capital Regional District is bullishly pursuing, i.e. smaller operations throughout the region and extraction of materials for re-use; the shaming headline that the Esquimalt/Vic West community is passing the sewage buck, while a catchy phrase is very misleading.
Historically this area has more than done its share. It has been the site of industries that left a legacy of pollution that is only now being remedied. It is becoming a vibrant community with families proudly reclaiming the older houses and new and innovative housing and businesses, including Dockside Green, that unlike the CRD proposal, produces drinkable water from its more technologically advanced sewage treatment system.
I am concerned that the members of the CRD committee, now that they have spent so much money as well as risked their personal reputations by backing a flawed approach, will no longer be able to make an unbiased decision.
Our region voted in 2007 not to have centralized sewage treatment.
There is no hurry to do this. Let’s take the time to get it right. We are all in this together and we all live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Susan Webber
Victoria
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OTHER CHOICES AVAILABLE FOR SEWAGE PLANTS (Hurkens)
Victoria News
May 31, 2013
The Viewfield Road site in Esquimalt is the wrong choice for a sludge plant, given its small size as well as close proximity to residences, schools, a grocery store and many other businesses.
And no, I am not happy that my house is a mere 400 metres downwind from the site – more than 200 residences are within 600 metres.
Perhaps the complete treatment facility could be built on the McLaughlin point site if only DND would release some adjacent land for sludge treatment. That is unlikely to happen, as the release of such lands by the federal government would likely be met by an instantaneous land claim from the relevant First Nations.
So why doesn’t the Capital Regional District expropriate a bigger, better site? Why not build these facilities on any golf club in the area, or the south part of Government House property in Victoria, or in Beacon Hill Park, or Uplands Park, or unused land at the University of Victoria, etc. That will not happen of course – the underlying criterion here appears to be ‘no effluent near the affluent.’
I’m sure that none of the councillors on the CRD sewage committee who are pressing for the Viewfield site live anywhere near it. Just whom are they serving?
I hope Esquimalt council does all it can to block the Viewfield site.
Roel Hurkens
Victoria
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