EVENTS AND ACTIONS:
- Sign petition to demand review of CRD sewage plan
- Prepare for McLoughlin Rezoning Public Hearing Feb 18
- Take boat tour of McLoughlin Point 16 Feb, 2pm
- Send in your letters!
- How it went - The RITE Plan sewage summit at Royal Roads
CRD SEWAGE NEWS
Audio-video:
- Superbugs interview on CBC 27 January
- Andrew Weaver on CBC 29 January
- CHEK News on Colwood Event
- CRD dissing Rite Plan 29 Jan
- Chris Corps interview CFAX
News stories:
- Lisa Helps' blog: Sewage treatment: crd residents deserve a better plan
- Colwood accelerating plans to build their own sewage treatment plant
- Let's test the RITE plan
- Irresponsible CRD practices (Atwell)
- Editorial: Burden on seniors goes up
LETTERS
- The RITE plan is a progressive approach (Atwell)
- Hidden sewage treatment issues (Dew-Jones)
- Gene an argument against sewage plan (Siebert)
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EVENTS AND ACTIONS:
Sign petition to demand review of CRD sewage plan
The communities have created a petition that we are sponsoring:
http://sewagepetition.ca/
Every signature will be presented in the Legislature by local MLAs.
Please sign!
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Prepare for McLoughlin Rezoning Public Hearing Feb 18
- Have you started thinking about your speech or presentations yet?
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Take boat tour of McLoughlin Point 16 Feb, 2pm
The CRD has come through with their promise to offer boat tours of McLoughlin Point.
Sun Feb 16 (2:00pm - 5:30pm)
146 Kingston Street, Orca Spirit Adventures (map: http://goo.gl/maps/XeMRV)
Limited to first 150 people.
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SEND IN YOUR LETTERS!
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How it went - The RITE Plan sewage summit at Royal Roads
Comments by participants:
Tom Maler
RITE Plan FB page
Jan 29
Richard and Chris Corps and Andrew did absolutely great job tonight in their presentations that neither Geoff Young nor Jack Hull could put a dent into their presentations, not a single small dent. And I was also impressed with the numbers that Chris Corps presented, not because I doubt them in the least, but because he said that they were not his own numbers, that a bunch of experts from Europe and/or elsewhere came up with them, so the CRD won't be able to discredit them as a single economists numbers.
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Audio-visual news:
Superbugs interview on CBC 27 January
http://theriteplan.ca/media/
- CRD has not included disinfection in the McLoughlin RFP.
http://theriteplan.ca/media/
- CRD has not included disinfection in the McLoughlin RFP.
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Andrew Weaver on CBC 29 January
http://theriteplan.ca/media/
The radio host got the introduction slightly incorrect: Esquimalt is indeed rezoned for sewage treatment but the CRD's proponents cannot fit on the site because they designed for the CRD's 2805 rezoning which wasn't passed by Esquimalt council on July 15, 2013.
CRD foolishly and perhaps even deliberately released their RFP on July 12, 2013 just 1 business day earlier. No doubt this is a tried and true industry manoeuvre to get the shovel in the ground when politics gets in the way.
http://theriteplan.ca/media/
The radio host got the introduction slightly incorrect: Esquimalt is indeed rezoned for sewage treatment but the CRD's proponents cannot fit on the site because they designed for the CRD's 2805 rezoning which wasn't passed by Esquimalt council on July 15, 2013.
CRD foolishly and perhaps even deliberately released their RFP on July 12, 2013 just 1 business day earlier. No doubt this is a tried and true industry manoeuvre to get the shovel in the ground when politics gets in the way.
---------------------------
CHEK News on Colwood Event
Richard Atwell
Very short CHEK News clip about Colwood's sewage treatment plans at the Royal Roads Sewage Forum we held last night:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=
Jan 30
Very short CHEK News clip about Colwood's sewage treatment plans at the Royal Roads Sewage Forum we held last night:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=
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CRD dissing Rite Plan 29 Jan
Richard Atwell
Here's yesterday's CRD sales pitch and attack on "anonymous" opponents:
Jan 31
Here's yesterday's CRD sales pitch and attack on "anonymous" opponents:
CRD's Jack Hull earlier on chemical removal using secondary treatment:
http://theriteplan.ca/media/
Length: 54s
First segment is from CFAX interview on July 31st telling Frank Stanford that 10-50% is removed. In other words...50-90% goes into the ocean.
Second segment is from Sept 4th, CRD TCAC meeting telling the members around the table that 10-80% were going to be removed. The TCAC members were asked to Approve Amendment 9 and somehow the treatment process became 30% more effective two months later.
Third segments dates from Dec of 2012 when he was selling the CRD on handing the project over to an unelected commission, he told the CRD Board that 90-95% reduction in the many emerging substances of concern (ESOCs).
So, depending on the day and who's listening you get a variety of answers .
This is probably the second best reason to have a proper tertiary treatment system: it won't matter what Jack Hull says the removal rate will be: it will speak for itself.
http://theriteplan.ca/media/
Length: 54s
First segment is from CFAX interview on July 31st telling Frank Stanford that 10-50% is removed. In other words...50-90% goes into the ocean.
Second segment is from Sept 4th, CRD TCAC meeting telling the members around the table that 10-80% were going to be removed. The TCAC members were asked to Approve Amendment 9 and somehow the treatment process became 30% more effective two months later.
Third segments dates from Dec of 2012 when he was selling the CRD on handing the project over to an unelected commission, he told the CRD Board that 90-95% reduction in the many emerging substances of concern (ESOCs).
So, depending on the day and who's listening you get a variety of answers .
This is probably the second best reason to have a proper tertiary treatment system: it won't matter what Jack Hull says the removal rate will be: it will speak for itself.
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Chris Corps interview CFAX
Chris Corps was on CFAX explaining the 50-year lifecycle costs for CRD taxpayers ($3.2B) and his background in Integrated Resource Management:
http://theriteplan.ca/media/
Chris and the team he was on produced a report in 2008 that set government policy for municipalities to do resource recovery. Here is the policy:
http://www.cscd.gov.bc.ca/lgd/
Here is the 2008 report that set the policy:
http://www.cscd.gov.bc.ca/lgd/
The way to do it? A decentralized system.
http://theriteplan.ca/media/
Chris and the team he was on produced a report in 2008 that set government policy for municipalities to do resource recovery. Here is the policy:
http://www.cscd.gov.bc.ca/lgd/
Here is the 2008 report that set the policy:
http://www.cscd.gov.bc.ca/lgd/
The way to do it? A decentralized system.
----------------------
News stories:
Lisa Helps' blog: Sewage treatment: crd residents deserve a better plan
January 26, 2014
Two weeks ago, I was invited by Andrew Weaver to be part of a three-person panel at a Public Forum on Sewage Treatment. In front of a standing room only crowd at the Oak Bay Rec Centre, it was clear to me how much passion and anxiety there is about sewage treatment in the CRD. It was also clear, in the question and answer period, how sewage treatment seems to have becoming a polarizing issue for people who, for the most part, agree that we need to treat our sewage.
Two weeks ago, I was invited by Andrew Weaver to be part of a three-person panel at a Public Forum on Sewage Treatment. In front of a standing room only crowd at the Oak Bay Rec Centre, it was clear to me how much passion and anxiety there is about sewage treatment in the CRD. It was also clear, in the question and answer period, how sewage treatment seems to have becoming a polarizing issue for people who, for the most part, agree that we need to treat our sewage.
The question that remains, and the divisive question, is how best do we do this?
READ MORE AT: http://www.
READ MORE AT: http://www.
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Colwood accelerating plans to build their own sewage treatment plant
http://theriteplan.ca/docs/
Instead of using the CRD system until 2030 and then building an additional plant, Colwood plans to have their plant up and running by 2016.
It will utilize the tertiary treatment process.
http://theriteplan.ca/docs/
Instead of using the CRD system until 2030 and then building an additional plant, Colwood plans to have their plant up and running by 2016.
It will utilize the tertiary treatment process.
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Let's test the RITE plan
Leslie Campbell
Focus magazine
Leslie Campbell
Focus magazine
February 2014
"The 2020 timeframe would also allow for a thorough, transparent evaluation and costing of the distributed tertiary system outlined in the RITE plan. And just as important, there would be time for more authentic engagement of citizens in the actual shaping of the plan.
"The 2020 timeframe would also allow for a thorough, transparent evaluation and costing of the distributed tertiary system outlined in the RITE plan. And just as important, there would be time for more authentic engagement of citizens in the actual shaping of the plan.
As Weaver said, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was something that the public actually advocated for? And the CRD got behind? …Everybody wins. This is what happens when you bring bottom-up process to governance as opposed to top-down-we-know-best: You get the right solutions…you can get great plans that people are behind rather than fighting.”"
READ MORE IN FOCUS:
http://focusonline.ca/sites/
READ MORE IN FOCUS:
http://focusonline.ca/sites/
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Irresponsible CRD practices (Atwell)
Richard Atwell8:33pm Jan 31
Esquimalt will decided what to do with the feedback from the public hearings on the rezoning of McLoughlin on Feb 24 but that hasn't stopped CRD from throwing out more RFQ's.
Here's another one from Jan 22 for consulting services:
http://www2.crd.bc.ca/
This is irresponsible.
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Editorial: Burden on seniors goes up
Times Colonist
February 1, 2014
Sewage-related Excerpt:
Fees are going up everywhere. In Victoria, for instance, residents face a property tax increase of 3.25 per cent. On top of that, they will pay 3.4 per cent more for the sewage utility fee, $17 more for the water consumption fee, $3.85 more for the annual meter service charge and another $20 for backyard garbage pickup. The water-consumption fee will go up even though residents are using less water, because the utility needs the money for continued upgrades. Victoria’s planned stormwater utility will move another chunk of money out of property taxes and into a new fee. Residents will be able to reduce their fees by upgrading their properties to cut back on runoff, but it’s unlikely most seniors would be able to afford such work. In addition, residents face a $37 charge for the first part of the Capital Regional District’s sewage-treatment project, with more to come when the project is finished.
http://www.timescolonist.com/
Times Colonist
February 1, 2014
Sewage-related Excerpt:
Fees are going up everywhere. In Victoria, for instance, residents face a property tax increase of 3.25 per cent. On top of that, they will pay 3.4 per cent more for the sewage utility fee, $17 more for the water consumption fee, $3.85 more for the annual meter service charge and another $20 for backyard garbage pickup. The water-consumption fee will go up even though residents are using less water, because the utility needs the money for continued upgrades. Victoria’s planned stormwater utility will move another chunk of money out of property taxes and into a new fee. Residents will be able to reduce their fees by upgrading their properties to cut back on runoff, but it’s unlikely most seniors would be able to afford such work. In addition, residents face a $37 charge for the first part of the Capital Regional District’s sewage-treatment project, with more to come when the project is finished.
http://www.timescolonist.com/
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LETTERS
The RITE plan is a progressive approach (Atwell)
Letters
Victoria News
Re: RITE plan the wrong way to go (Letters Jan. 22).
It is a misnomer that the CRD sewage plan is centralized or contained. The CRD plan is for a three-plant model with a treatment plant at McLoughlin Point, a biosolids plant at Hartland and plans for a second treatment plant in the West Shore. How can a single plant be the lowest cost when the minister approved a CRD plan for two plants?
The RITE Plan is not advocating for a public or private model of ownership or operation and such a matter could be dealt with through a referendum process, although it must be understood that the province, in 2007, exempted sewage treatment projects from requiring the ascent of electors.
While the biosolids plant at Hartland will be a P3, the publicly operated wastewater plant itself will create only 12 jobs according to CRD documents. Imagine the number of jobs that could be saved or created by finding hundreds of millions in savings from a lower cost design? Even before you consider models of ownership, it’s clearly more than 12.
The RITE Plan is advocating for a decentralized model using off-the-shelf technologies that have been available for the past 10 years, examples of which are operating within Dockside Green’s treatment plant. It is a viable and cost effective alternative to the CRD’s sewage plan, which is already years out of date.
Dockside Green itself is a proven success and has shown that treatment can be made compatible with people and property values, placed underground and the end product can be used to recycle water and create or enhance water features. These are the literal downstream benefits that come after tertiary treatment is localized, yet are optional and can be developed over time.
This model is a practical and natural step towards the management of water which will make neighbourhoods and new developments attractive to home buyers.
In contrast, the CRD plan, at great cost, will simply flush all treated water out to sea after secondary treatment because it’s not safe enough to go anywhere else.
Once again, ocean dilution must be employed which is the system we already have in place.
Greater Victoria requires a progressive approach such as The RITE Plan, not a 20-year old design that offers little more than a large tax increase and a 50-year dependency on the old way of treating waste.
Richard Atwell
Director, The RITE Plan
http://www.vicnews.com/
Letters
Victoria News
Jan 31, 2014
Re: RITE plan the wrong way to go (Letters Jan. 22).
It is a misnomer that the CRD sewage plan is centralized or contained. The CRD plan is for a three-plant model with a treatment plant at McLoughlin Point, a biosolids plant at Hartland and plans for a second treatment plant in the West Shore. How can a single plant be the lowest cost when the minister approved a CRD plan for two plants?
The RITE Plan is not advocating for a public or private model of ownership or operation and such a matter could be dealt with through a referendum process, although it must be understood that the province, in 2007, exempted sewage treatment projects from requiring the ascent of electors.
While the biosolids plant at Hartland will be a P3, the publicly operated wastewater plant itself will create only 12 jobs according to CRD documents. Imagine the number of jobs that could be saved or created by finding hundreds of millions in savings from a lower cost design? Even before you consider models of ownership, it’s clearly more than 12.
The RITE Plan is advocating for a decentralized model using off-the-shelf technologies that have been available for the past 10 years, examples of which are operating within Dockside Green’s treatment plant. It is a viable and cost effective alternative to the CRD’s sewage plan, which is already years out of date.
Dockside Green itself is a proven success and has shown that treatment can be made compatible with people and property values, placed underground and the end product can be used to recycle water and create or enhance water features. These are the literal downstream benefits that come after tertiary treatment is localized, yet are optional and can be developed over time.
This model is a practical and natural step towards the management of water which will make neighbourhoods and new developments attractive to home buyers.
In contrast, the CRD plan, at great cost, will simply flush all treated water out to sea after secondary treatment because it’s not safe enough to go anywhere else.
Once again, ocean dilution must be employed which is the system we already have in place.
Greater Victoria requires a progressive approach such as The RITE Plan, not a 20-year old design that offers little more than a large tax increase and a 50-year dependency on the old way of treating waste.
Richard Atwell
Director, The RITE Plan
http://www.vicnews.com/
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Hidden sewage treatment issues (Dew-Jones)
Letters
Focus Magazine
The CRD continually treat the upcoming 800 million-dollar escapade although it’s cost were 8 million or maybe 80 million. I would urge readers to ask them a few questions. The main purpose of treating sewage is to protect health.
Focus Magazine
February 2013
The CRD continually treat the upcoming 800 million-dollar escapade although it’s cost were 8 million or maybe 80 million. I would urge readers to ask them a few questions. The main purpose of treating sewage is to protect health.
The present system does that admirably. The contract will involve many injuries and an informed guess would be 30 will be permanently impaired; lost arm, wheel chair, anyone care? The operation of the plant also imposes continual health risks. Health-wise we will be going backwards.
How much fuel will be used in the contract and how much pollution will have been caused in its generation and how much exhaust in it’s use? How much toxic gas is generated in making the tons of cement needed.? Pollution wise we will be going backwards. What is the impact on Georgia strait of the waste from Victoria compared with that from New Westminster, Vancouver and greater Seattle.
How much fuel will be used in the contract and how much pollution will have been caused in its generation and how much exhaust in it’s use? How much toxic gas is generated in making the tons of cement needed.? Pollution wise we will be going backwards. What is the impact on Georgia strait of the waste from Victoria compared with that from New Westminster, Vancouver and greater Seattle.
An order of magnitude guess might be one hundred to one as we have no toxic waste. Lastly, what is the point of converting the nutrients which now discharge to the sea, probably to it’s benefit, into a sludge which despite all you read is a problem; that is what this plant will do.
J.E.Dew-Jones, P.Eng
http://focusonline.ca/?q=node/
J.E.Dew-Jones, P.Eng
http://focusonline.ca/?q=node/
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Gene an argument against sewage plan (Siebert)
Letters
1 Feb 2014
Times Colonist page A11 (PressReader)
Re: “Storm drains are a public health concern,” comment, Jan. 26.
With the recent report from China that an antibiotic-resistant gene, NDM-1, is not killed but fostered by the wastewater treatment plant environment, the fact that stormwater represents at present a greater water hazard than our sewage as currently treated, the opinions continually proffered by marine biologists and wastewater specialists regarding best practices, and the examples of plants using new technologies elsewhere in the world, is it not finally time to consult scientists instead of politicians to decide what is best for us?
We need to put the brakes on this train chugging along in the wrong direction with a moratorium as we turn to the fact-and research-based community and away from the seat-of-the-pants community.
Sophie Siebert
Victoria
Letters
1 Feb 2014
Times Colonist page A11 (PressReader)
Re: “Storm drains are a public health concern,” comment, Jan. 26.
With the recent report from China that an antibiotic-resistant gene, NDM-1, is not killed but fostered by the wastewater treatment plant environment, the fact that stormwater represents at present a greater water hazard than our sewage as currently treated, the opinions continually proffered by marine biologists and wastewater specialists regarding best practices, and the examples of plants using new technologies elsewhere in the world, is it not finally time to consult scientists instead of politicians to decide what is best for us?
We need to put the brakes on this train chugging along in the wrong direction with a moratorium as we turn to the fact-and research-based community and away from the seat-of-the-pants community.
Sophie Siebert
Victoria
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SEND IN YOUR LETTERS!
