CRD SEWAGE NEWS:
Audio-Visual News:
- Mayor Fortin on CFAX
- CRD Director and Victoria Councillor Alto on CFAX 2 June
- Jensen on CFAX 3 June
- CRD Director and Victoria Councillor Alto on CFAX 2 June
- Jensen on CFAX 3 June
- Lisa Helps on CFAX 4 June
- Jensen on CHEK
- Victoria getting into sewage treatment research CFAX
- City of Victoria Committee discussion 6 June
- The RITE Plan's Youtube Channel
News stories:
- Editorial: Don’t go solo on sewage plant
- Comment: Sewage treatment — The future is upon us
- Jim Hume blog: Is that light at the end of the tunnel?
- Unsettled regional sewage plan has Victoria exploring options
- RSTV website updated to 7 June
- Raeside's view
- Comment: Sewage treatment — The future is upon us
- Jim Hume blog: Is that light at the end of the tunnel?
- Unsettled regional sewage plan has Victoria exploring options
- RSTV website updated to 7 June
- Raeside's view
LETTERS:
- Dithering leaders prove need for amalgamation (Devion)
- Long outfalls better than land-based treatment (Dew-Jones)
- Still time to appeal to federal government (Gibson)
- Long outfalls better than land-based treatment (Dew-Jones)
- Still time to appeal to federal government (Gibson)
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CRD SEWAGE NEWS
Audio-Visual News:
Richard:
http://theriteplan.ca/media/
First steps: vote by council to ask staff to prepare a report outlining the options.
A lot of questions at this point in time...no doubt about that but the irony of this situation is that the person at City of Victoria providing the answer will likely be Director of Engineering, Dwayne Kalynchuk who's previous job was to head up the sewage project at the CRD:
http://www.victoria.ca/assets/
"With over 27 years experience in the municipal sector, Dwayne Kalynchuk, PEng, joins the City after five years as the General Manager of Environmental Services with the Capital Regional District, leading the largest municipal wastewater treatment project in Canada, the Core Area Wastewater Project."
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CRD Director and Victoria Councillor Alto on CFAX 2 June
Richard:
CRD Director and City of Victoria Councillor Marianne Alto was on CFAX 1070 with Terry Moore to discuss "Plan B":
Length: 37 mins.
Like Fortin's interview from the morning, the interview raised even more questions about the road ahead.
Alto will be bringing forward a motion at the next Victoria Governance and Priorities Committee (GPC) meeting on Friday between 11-12:30pm. The motion will likely ask staff to expedite an evaluation of the possibilities so Alto can bring them forth at the June 11th CRD meeting.
In my opinion, this amount of time is far too short to obtain a meaningful answer unless staff have already been working on it behind the scenes...
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Jensen on CFAX 3 June
http://theriteplan.ca/media/
Jensen can't possibly believe everything he said on air...
$450 per home. "Wishful thinking model" discussion starts 03:40. $1.5 billion and lose the $500 million contribution. Roughly double. Best case is $1.5 billion. Focus Magazine article Broadland's Blaine model. Whole series of "Blaines" at $38 million. So at $2.5 billion at 05:30 minutes means $2500-3,000 per family. Esquimalt's 180. Eleventh hour. plan at end of this month. Without plan by end 2015. IF we put a plan forward means we have more time and get more money. Minister hasn't fully conceived of the problems. Options on 11 June include...Problem is provincial government power to determine siting but they don't. Three options: distributed model will lose $500 million, 8 sites. Option 2 is new centralized site. Option 3 is to continue at McLoughlin with smaller plant. Jensen wants ministers to take action.
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Lisa Helps on CFAX 4 June
Candidate for Mayor of City of Victoria Lisa Helps was on CFAX 1070 with Ian Jessop at 2pm to talk about municipalities going it alone on sewage:
http:///theriteplan.ca/media/
Lisa suggests that CRD is not the right body to own the sewage project and collaboration between municipalities could achieve a better result.
http:///theriteplan.ca/media/
Lisa suggests that CRD is not the right body to own the sewage project and collaboration between municipalities could achieve a better result.
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Jensen on CHEK
"We as a CRD offered up to...$19m in concessions, so there was a lot of money on the table and at the last minute they reneged and that is not democracy." - Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen
http://youtu.be/DIxiubaW-ns
Negotiations aren't democracy but a public hearing process that rejected the site certainly is.
http://youtu.be/DIxiubaW-ns
Negotiations aren't democracy but a public hearing process that rejected the site certainly is.
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If you missed the CFAX Wed editorial on the political ramifications of the sewage project, the attendance of sewage CRD Directors and lack of Plan B, it's now available:
http://theriteplan.ca/media/140604_CFAX_Ian_Jessop_Editorial.m4a
This one will become a classic.
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Victoria getting into sewage treatment research
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City of Victoria Committee discussion 6 June
City of Victoria's Governance and Priorities Committee, Council debated asking staff to explore sewage treatment options for Victoria.
http://youtu.be/78g6Mjuwum8
Length: 1 hour
If you have the time this is interesting to watch given the present circumstances and given that Geoff Young is the chair of the CRD sewage committee.
http://youtu.be/78g6Mjuwum8
Length: 1 hour
If you have the time this is interesting to watch given the present circumstances and given that Geoff Young is the chair of the CRD sewage committee.
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RITE Plan's Youtube Channel
Frequently updated with the most vital and interesting snippets that show the best and the worst of the CRD's sewage planning process
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News stories:
Editorial: Don’t go solo on sewage plant
TIMES COLONIST
JUNE 4, 2014
The regional sewage-treatment plan faces challenges. If seven municipalities decide to go it alone, the challenges will be multiplied by seven. It would be better to face these challenges together.
With the Capital Regional District’s land-based sewage-treatment plan apparently in disarray, Victoria is looking at embarking on its own project. Mayor Dean Fortin and Coun. Marianne Alto say the city needs a Plan B, so they are seeking support for a motion asking city staff to prepare information on the implications of a Victoria-only treatment plant.
Their frustration is understandable. Eight years after the province ordered the CRD to move to land-based sewage treatment, there is little to show for years of effort, other than $48 million in costs flushed down the toilet and a region fractured over the issue.
And a complicated issue it is, not merely a question of factions divided for and against. Some people are sewage-treatment skeptics, saying land-based treatment is not necessary, that it will cause more harm than good. Others are NIMBYists, not eager to live next door to a sewage-treatment facility. Some favour land-based sewage treatment, but believe the CRD’s plan was not the right approach because it did not go far enough in removing trace chemicals and other potentially harmful substances from the effluent. Others advocate a network of smaller plants distributed around the region, rather than one large plant.
These divergent views are not the ravings of fringe lunatics, but the reasonings of reasonable and concerned people, backed by opinion and research from credible sources.
The status quo doesn’t appear to be an option. The province said secondary treatment should be in operation by 2018, and the federal government says it should happen by 2020. There doesn’t seem to be much prospect of changing the minds of senior governments — Environment Minister Mary Polak said she still expects those deadlines to be met — and scientific evidence might have little to do with it.
“The professional assessments of marine scientists from B.C. and Washington state, public health officials and engineers, that the present discharge of screened effluent via deep-sea outfalls is cost-effective and causes minimal damage to the marine environment, have been ignored,” wrote University of Victoria health economist Rebecca Warburton in a paper published recently in Public Sector Digest.
“Forcing the capital region to move to land-based sewage treatment is a triumph of optics over evidence.”
If so, it appears the optics are not likely to change, nor are the edicts from the provincial and federal governments. That train has left the station. Greater Victoria is not exactly a treasure trove of votes for the party in power in either capital.
If the municipalities strike out on their own, that means as many as seven projects will need to be studied and planned. Environmental assessments will be required. Networks will have to be designed. Municipal boundaries will have to be considered. And sites will need to be procured for each project, resulting in a sevenfold déjà vu of the McLoughlin Point controversy.
There will be much needless duplication of effort, something that Victoria Coun. Geoff Young estimates will at least double the final cost. Taxpayers should regard this development with a great deal of alarm.
A regional effort would be far better, but it has to be done in a collaborative spirit, with compromises and accommodations. A top-down approach would only create more resentment and result in more roadblocks.
Each municipality values its autonomy and unique character, and rightly so, but some things demand a regional solution. Nothing would be gained and much would be lost if each municipality embarked on its own sewage-treatment project.
http://www.timescolonist.com/
TIMES COLONIST
JUNE 4, 2014
The regional sewage-treatment plan faces challenges. If seven municipalities decide to go it alone, the challenges will be multiplied by seven. It would be better to face these challenges together.
With the Capital Regional District’s land-based sewage-treatment plan apparently in disarray, Victoria is looking at embarking on its own project. Mayor Dean Fortin and Coun. Marianne Alto say the city needs a Plan B, so they are seeking support for a motion asking city staff to prepare information on the implications of a Victoria-only treatment plant.
Their frustration is understandable. Eight years after the province ordered the CRD to move to land-based sewage treatment, there is little to show for years of effort, other than $48 million in costs flushed down the toilet and a region fractured over the issue.
And a complicated issue it is, not merely a question of factions divided for and against. Some people are sewage-treatment skeptics, saying land-based treatment is not necessary, that it will cause more harm than good. Others are NIMBYists, not eager to live next door to a sewage-treatment facility. Some favour land-based sewage treatment, but believe the CRD’s plan was not the right approach because it did not go far enough in removing trace chemicals and other potentially harmful substances from the effluent. Others advocate a network of smaller plants distributed around the region, rather than one large plant.
These divergent views are not the ravings of fringe lunatics, but the reasonings of reasonable and concerned people, backed by opinion and research from credible sources.
The status quo doesn’t appear to be an option. The province said secondary treatment should be in operation by 2018, and the federal government says it should happen by 2020. There doesn’t seem to be much prospect of changing the minds of senior governments — Environment Minister Mary Polak said she still expects those deadlines to be met — and scientific evidence might have little to do with it.
“The professional assessments of marine scientists from B.C. and Washington state, public health officials and engineers, that the present discharge of screened effluent via deep-sea outfalls is cost-effective and causes minimal damage to the marine environment, have been ignored,” wrote University of Victoria health economist Rebecca Warburton in a paper published recently in Public Sector Digest.
“Forcing the capital region to move to land-based sewage treatment is a triumph of optics over evidence.”
If so, it appears the optics are not likely to change, nor are the edicts from the provincial and federal governments. That train has left the station. Greater Victoria is not exactly a treasure trove of votes for the party in power in either capital.
If the municipalities strike out on their own, that means as many as seven projects will need to be studied and planned. Environmental assessments will be required. Networks will have to be designed. Municipal boundaries will have to be considered. And sites will need to be procured for each project, resulting in a sevenfold déjà vu of the McLoughlin Point controversy.
There will be much needless duplication of effort, something that Victoria Coun. Geoff Young estimates will at least double the final cost. Taxpayers should regard this development with a great deal of alarm.
A regional effort would be far better, but it has to be done in a collaborative spirit, with compromises and accommodations. A top-down approach would only create more resentment and result in more roadblocks.
Each municipality values its autonomy and unique character, and rightly so, but some things demand a regional solution. Nothing would be gained and much would be lost if each municipality embarked on its own sewage-treatment project.
http://www.timescolonist.com/
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Comment: Sewage treatment — The future is upon us
LISA HELPS
LISA HELPS
TIMES COLONIST
JUNE 4, 2014
I keep hearing that Esquimalt’s refusal to rezone the land at McLoughlin Point and Environment Minister Mary Polak’s refusal to intervene on sewage treatment “has cost taxpayers tens of millions and will now cost millions more.”
Every time I hear this, I become more determined to implement a solution that will cost less, accomplish a higher level of treatment and be embraced by the region’s residents and businesses.
Some view Polak’s refusal to intervene as a crisis. I don’t. The firmness of her decision, promises of funding and the knowledge that federal deadlines are not imminent provide us with a rare opportunity.
With the unwillingness of the Capital Regional District to undertake a review of its sewage project after much public outcry, and now that the CRD plan is defunct, individual municipalities are left to seek solutions that are long-term, ecologically sound and cost-effective. I welcome this opportunity.
Colwood and Esquimalt have taken leadership and publicly recognized that a better way forward exists. Both municipalities are seeking the knowledge required to implement waste-management solutions that are in the best interest of their residents. These efforts will rely on independent examinations of treatment options and ensure that the selected systems maximize efficiency and affordability, and bring with them long-lasting benefits.
It’s time for Victoria to take action. Coun. Marianne Alto and Mayor Dean Fortin are proposing that council ask staff for the implications for the city of proceeding with a local liquid-waste treatment facility.
There are two ways in which their proposal can be strengthened. First, to start with a fresh set of eyes, the city needs to seek outside advice from people who have not been involved in the CRD’s project from its inception. Second, to innovate and build for the future, the city needs to consider multiple sewage treatment/resource recovery sites rather than begin with the notion that a single site is the best way forward.
And finally, Victoria must not begin with the premise that led to the CRD project’s failure — an “us versus them” mentality. Victoria cannot begin by saying: “We tried to be good regional players but the region doesn’t want to play.” There is an opportunity to collaborate and partner with our neighbours through co-operative research, contracting and public consultation, and maybe even in shared facilities where environmental and economic benefits exist.
Victoria must begin with openness, a willingness to innovate and collaborate, and, most importantly, a willingness to engage our residents in the process. We need to rebuild the relationship between the public and its government.
To achieve a desirable outcome, Victoria must:
• implement tertiary level of treatment to capture the chemicals of emerging concern and limit micro-plastic pollution;
• employ modern technologies that allow for plants with a smaller footprint;
• maximize heat, energy and water recovery;
• reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
• apply “SmartGrowth” principles to inform all decision-making;
• integrate an active program to repair our underground piping network;
• and finally, change the story from large-scale sewage treatment plants to human-scale integrated-resource-management projects. This will go a long way to replacing the cry, “Not in my backyard” with, “In my neighbourhood please!”
This is a turning point — away from the recent controversy and polarization and toward reconciliation. Victoria, Esquimalt, Colwood and others can and must design and build treatment systems that our residents not only can afford, but also can be proud of.
- Lisa Helps is a Victoria city councillor.
http://www.timescolonist.com/
JUNE 4, 2014
I keep hearing that Esquimalt’s refusal to rezone the land at McLoughlin Point and Environment Minister Mary Polak’s refusal to intervene on sewage treatment “has cost taxpayers tens of millions and will now cost millions more.”
Every time I hear this, I become more determined to implement a solution that will cost less, accomplish a higher level of treatment and be embraced by the region’s residents and businesses.
Some view Polak’s refusal to intervene as a crisis. I don’t. The firmness of her decision, promises of funding and the knowledge that federal deadlines are not imminent provide us with a rare opportunity.
With the unwillingness of the Capital Regional District to undertake a review of its sewage project after much public outcry, and now that the CRD plan is defunct, individual municipalities are left to seek solutions that are long-term, ecologically sound and cost-effective. I welcome this opportunity.
Colwood and Esquimalt have taken leadership and publicly recognized that a better way forward exists. Both municipalities are seeking the knowledge required to implement waste-management solutions that are in the best interest of their residents. These efforts will rely on independent examinations of treatment options and ensure that the selected systems maximize efficiency and affordability, and bring with them long-lasting benefits.
It’s time for Victoria to take action. Coun. Marianne Alto and Mayor Dean Fortin are proposing that council ask staff for the implications for the city of proceeding with a local liquid-waste treatment facility.
There are two ways in which their proposal can be strengthened. First, to start with a fresh set of eyes, the city needs to seek outside advice from people who have not been involved in the CRD’s project from its inception. Second, to innovate and build for the future, the city needs to consider multiple sewage treatment/resource recovery sites rather than begin with the notion that a single site is the best way forward.
And finally, Victoria must not begin with the premise that led to the CRD project’s failure — an “us versus them” mentality. Victoria cannot begin by saying: “We tried to be good regional players but the region doesn’t want to play.” There is an opportunity to collaborate and partner with our neighbours through co-operative research, contracting and public consultation, and maybe even in shared facilities where environmental and economic benefits exist.
Victoria must begin with openness, a willingness to innovate and collaborate, and, most importantly, a willingness to engage our residents in the process. We need to rebuild the relationship between the public and its government.
To achieve a desirable outcome, Victoria must:
• implement tertiary level of treatment to capture the chemicals of emerging concern and limit micro-plastic pollution;
• employ modern technologies that allow for plants with a smaller footprint;
• maximize heat, energy and water recovery;
• reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
• apply “SmartGrowth” principles to inform all decision-making;
• integrate an active program to repair our underground piping network;
• and finally, change the story from large-scale sewage treatment plants to human-scale integrated-resource-management projects. This will go a long way to replacing the cry, “Not in my backyard” with, “In my neighbourhood please!”
This is a turning point — away from the recent controversy and polarization and toward reconciliation. Victoria, Esquimalt, Colwood and others can and must design and build treatment systems that our residents not only can afford, but also can be proud of.
- Lisa Helps is a Victoria city councillor.
http://www.timescolonist.com/
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Jim Hume blog: Is that light at the end of the tunnel?
http://jimhume.ca/2014/06/04/
----------------http://jimhume.ca/2014/06/04/
Unsettled regional sewage plan has Victoria exploring options
BILL CLEVERLEY / TIMES COLONIST
JUNE 6, 2014
Victoria councillors Friday endorsed a resolution to have city staff investigate building one or more sewage treatment plants of its own.
As the Capital Regional District struggles to find some relief for its constipated sewage megaproject, Victoria will examine its own options.
Victoria councillors Friday endorsed a resolution from Mayor Dean Fortin and Coun. Marianne Alto to have city staff investigate building one or more sewage treatment plants of its own. The investigation will include the potential of Victoria entering into agreements with other municipalities on sewage treatment.
“This is not about abandoning the region or assuming any outcomes at the regional table. This is about being prepared for Victoria,” Alto said.
“I think this is a chance for us to make sure that the interests of Victoria residents are protected, regardless of what goes forward, and for us to … prepare for an alternative with the idea that we need to inoculate our residents against any unforeseen costs.”
Coun. Geoff Young, who reluctantly supported the motion, said, “I weep for the taxpayers because I am absolutely convinced that the costs will be very much higher.”
Young, chairman of the CRD’s liquid waste management committee, noted the regional district studied in detail a “distributed tertiary treatment model” — which would see several smaller plants serving different areas — and rejected the idea as far more expensive than the $783-million single treatment-plant option that has been proposed.
“The results were not: ‘It’s a little bit more expensive to do distributed tertiary,’ ” Young said. “The results were: ‘It’s way more expensive.’ There was no ambiguity.”
CRD directors are scheduled to meet Wednesday to determine the region’s next steps following Environment Minister Mary Polak’s announcement last month that she would not overturn Esquimalt’s refusal to rezone McLoughlin Point for a regional sewage treatment plant.
After the announcement, the CRD said Polak’s decision meant McLoughlin was to be abandoned as a potential treatment site. As a result, CRD directors have to figure out what to do next.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins has proposed suspending Seaterra, the commission overseeing the sewage treatment project, until Jan. 15 to allow the board and member municipalities to consider other options.
She also is calling for termination of all Seaterra-related projects by Sept. 30.
Both Esquimalt and Colwood want to pursue the idea of building smaller treatment plants which could service their communities.
But timing is increasingly becoming a critical factor.
To meet federal wastewater regulations, the CRD is required to have a secondary treatment plant in place by 2015. It has until the end of this month to apply for an extension to 2020, but to make that application, it has to have a plan detailing how it expects to comply with the regulations.
Without McLoughlin as a treatment plant site, there essentially is no plan. That would mean that come Jan. 1, the CRD potentially would be subject to fines of up to $500,000 a day under the Fisheries Act.
The clock is also ticking on $500 million in senior government funding for a regional treatment plant.
The CRD has to have a plant up and running by 2018 to meet federal and provincial government funding deadlines.
Seaterra has selected Harbour Resource Partners as its preferred proponent to design, build and partially finance the planned treatment plant at McLoughlin. But that bid expires July 26.
http://www.timescolonist.com/
BILL CLEVERLEY / TIMES COLONIST
JUNE 6, 2014
Victoria councillors Friday endorsed a resolution to have city staff investigate building one or more sewage treatment plants of its own.
As the Capital Regional District struggles to find some relief for its constipated sewage megaproject, Victoria will examine its own options.
Victoria councillors Friday endorsed a resolution from Mayor Dean Fortin and Coun. Marianne Alto to have city staff investigate building one or more sewage treatment plants of its own. The investigation will include the potential of Victoria entering into agreements with other municipalities on sewage treatment.
“This is not about abandoning the region or assuming any outcomes at the regional table. This is about being prepared for Victoria,” Alto said.
“I think this is a chance for us to make sure that the interests of Victoria residents are protected, regardless of what goes forward, and for us to … prepare for an alternative with the idea that we need to inoculate our residents against any unforeseen costs.”
Coun. Geoff Young, who reluctantly supported the motion, said, “I weep for the taxpayers because I am absolutely convinced that the costs will be very much higher.”
Young, chairman of the CRD’s liquid waste management committee, noted the regional district studied in detail a “distributed tertiary treatment model” — which would see several smaller plants serving different areas — and rejected the idea as far more expensive than the $783-million single treatment-plant option that has been proposed.
“The results were not: ‘It’s a little bit more expensive to do distributed tertiary,’ ” Young said. “The results were: ‘It’s way more expensive.’ There was no ambiguity.”
CRD directors are scheduled to meet Wednesday to determine the region’s next steps following Environment Minister Mary Polak’s announcement last month that she would not overturn Esquimalt’s refusal to rezone McLoughlin Point for a regional sewage treatment plant.
After the announcement, the CRD said Polak’s decision meant McLoughlin was to be abandoned as a potential treatment site. As a result, CRD directors have to figure out what to do next.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins has proposed suspending Seaterra, the commission overseeing the sewage treatment project, until Jan. 15 to allow the board and member municipalities to consider other options.
She also is calling for termination of all Seaterra-related projects by Sept. 30.
Both Esquimalt and Colwood want to pursue the idea of building smaller treatment plants which could service their communities.
But timing is increasingly becoming a critical factor.
To meet federal wastewater regulations, the CRD is required to have a secondary treatment plant in place by 2015. It has until the end of this month to apply for an extension to 2020, but to make that application, it has to have a plan detailing how it expects to comply with the regulations.
Without McLoughlin as a treatment plant site, there essentially is no plan. That would mean that come Jan. 1, the CRD potentially would be subject to fines of up to $500,000 a day under the Fisheries Act.
The clock is also ticking on $500 million in senior government funding for a regional treatment plant.
The CRD has to have a plant up and running by 2018 to meet federal and provincial government funding deadlines.
Seaterra has selected Harbour Resource Partners as its preferred proponent to design, build and partially finance the planned treatment plant at McLoughlin. But that bid expires July 26.
http://www.timescolonist.com/
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RSTV website updated to 7 June
LETTERS
Dithering leaders prove need for amalgamation (Devion)
http://www.timescolonist.com/
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Long outfalls better than land-based treatment (Dew-Jones)
TIMES COLONIST
JUNE 3, 2014
Re: “Dumping sewage is not sustainable,” letter, May 30.
Forty-four years ago, or half my life, I was given the task of assessing an application for a permit to discharge raw sewage through a long outfall discharging at a depth of 60 metres.
The application had been prepared on behalf of the Capital Regional District by a firm of consulting engineers led by Merv Stewart, who had a doctorate in engineering. A land-based plant would have diluted the waste 10-fold, but initially the long outfall was going to dilute it 200-fold before it began to disperse. Later, a British royal commission deduced that where conditions were suitable, long outfalls “could be environmentally preferable” to secondary treatment. A committee set up to advise the U.S. Congress, led by the director of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute, rejected the notion that discharges to the sea should have secondary treatment, “the evidence to the contrary being overwhelming.”
The long outfalls have been providing better treatment than a land-based plant would have done and still do so. They also provide much better control of pathogens.
J.E. (Ted) Dew-Jones, P.Eng.
Victoria
http://www.timescolonist.com/
Photo of Ted as keynote speaker at ARESST's 2012 AGM:
In 1991, Dew-Jones distributed his 50-page monograph Victoria's Sewage Circus
More on Dew-Jones and his Victoria's Sewage Circus:
A professional engineer who arrived in Canada from London, England in 1954, Dew-Jones joined the Provincial Pollution Control Branch in 1968. He retired in 1985. In 1991 he self-published Victoria's Sewage Circus ($6.95) to argue that politicians and the public were inclined to spend too much money on treatment of sewage due to unscientific assumptions.
J.E. Dew-Jones' Victoria's Sewage Circus provides a professional engineer's views of Victoria's controversial sewage outfall system. The author is bucking the tide of sentiment that wants Victoria to adopt sewage treatment systems plant that he believes would be both costly and damaging to the environment.
"My main incentive for writing is to try and reverse the present widespread disregard for scholarship and accountability," he says, "Twenty years of monitoring and thirty years of research might as well not have been done if those promoting treatment have their way. I view scholarship as critical to democracy."
We'll refrain from making any sewage jokes and let you know that Ted Dew Jones' 50-page book is available for $6.95 from 63 Dock St. Victoria, B.C. V8V 1Z9.
- from BC Book World, 1991
Ted as key-note speaker at ARESST AGM 2012
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Still time to appeal to federal government (Gibson)
TIMES COLONIST
JUNE 4, 2014
Our local politicians still have a “Get out of jail free” card, now that the current sewage treatment plan and process have been thoroughly discredited.
They have until June 30 to appeal the federal government’s “high risk” rating of our current sewage treatment system. Having our ocean-based treatment system redesignated as low risk to public health and the environment (which it most certainly is) would extend the deadline for compliance with new federal sewage treatment regulations until 2040. This would give us time to do what should have been done in the first place — conduct a proper cost-benefit analysis and an environmental impact study of both our current system and a variety of possible land-based treatment systems.
If our local politicians continue to push ahead with this ludicrous, billion-dollar environmental nightmare, and fail to ask for some breathing room from the feds while they still have the chance, it will amount to no less than a dereliction of duty on their part.
Graydon Gibson
Victoria
JUNE 4, 2014
Our local politicians still have a “Get out of jail free” card, now that the current sewage treatment plan and process have been thoroughly discredited.
They have until June 30 to appeal the federal government’s “high risk” rating of our current sewage treatment system. Having our ocean-based treatment system redesignated as low risk to public health and the environment (which it most certainly is) would extend the deadline for compliance with new federal sewage treatment regulations until 2040. This would give us time to do what should have been done in the first place — conduct a proper cost-benefit analysis and an environmental impact study of both our current system and a variety of possible land-based treatment systems.
If our local politicians continue to push ahead with this ludicrous, billion-dollar environmental nightmare, and fail to ask for some breathing room from the feds while they still have the chance, it will amount to no less than a dereliction of duty on their part.
Graydon Gibson
Victoria
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