August 10, 2014

CRD SEWAGE NEWS: 
Audio-Visual News:
Young's fear-of-losing-funding and the false flyer
- The RITE Plan's Youtube Channel

News stories:
'Forced hiatus' on CRD sewage project an opportunity, says Saanich councillor
What is Peak Phosphorus?
CRD Sewage Meeting 13 August

LETTERS:
Better environmental vision is needed (Pittman)

SEND IN YOUR LETTERS!
------------------

CRD SEWAGE NEWS

Audio-Visual News:

Young's fear-of-losing-funding and the false flyer

At the CRD meeting next Wed, it will be interesting to see Geoff Young's approval of the flyer's contents given its alignment with most of his comments in print and on the radio.

Compare the obvious flaws in the flyer...

http://theriteplan.ca/docs/140808_Draft_Bribe_Flyer.pdf

...to his 2009 criticism of the City of Victoria's Johnson St. Bridge flyer that miserably failed to present a balanced comparison.

http://youtu.be/t2ki3oRRe60

The financial fear mongering in the flyer must be taken to task by other CRD Directors at the sewage committee table. The CRD has been using "the fear of losing the funding" for 5 years now.

Exactly, how many years does it take the CRD to lose funding anyway?
--------------

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

-------------------
News stories:

'Forced hiatus' on CRD sewage project an opportunity, says Saanich councillor

Daniel Palmer 
Saanich News
Aug 8, 2014

Capital Regional District directors meet once again Wednesday to discuss salvaging the region’s $788-million secondary sewage treatment project, but the “forced hiatus” provides a window for new ideas, said Saanich Coun. Vic Derman.

Derman, who also sits as a director on the CRD’s core area liquid waste management committee, intends to put forward a notice of motion next week to ask for an overview of the latest technology and the feasibility of a distributed treatment model.

“It might be appropriate to have an investigation led by a retired deputy minister or someone of similar status,” Derman said. The process wouldn’t need the time and expense of a full-scale Request for Proposals, but could still inform directors on “what’s out there,” Derman said.

“We’re not going anywhere right now, and that’s pretty obvious,” he said. “There’s been an attempt to resuscitate the old project, and for lack of a better term, buy off Esquimalt. I don’t think that will be successful."

Only two smaller projects, the Craigflower pump station and a $760,000 design of an attenuation tank at Arbutus Road, are continuing as planned while the Seaterra program awaits direction on a way forward from CRD directors.

During that wait, Derman said directors need a “sounding” of available sewage treatment technology to ensure they’re building the best plants for the right price.

“We need an independent examination of the technology out there, the potential for architecture, what are examples elsewhere, and get enough information to figure out whether a distributed model is worth pursuing further or whether we stick with the direction we went, but without McLoughlin Point.,” he said.

Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins is already involved in that process. Staff from West Shore communities, Esquimalt and the City of Victoria are currently working on terms of reference to move ahead on a distributed model study under the umbrella of the CRD, she said. The team had hoped to present those terms at Wednesday’s meeting, but more work needs to be done.

“Our technical staff believe we may be able to provide sewage treatment that not only meets regulatory standards and guidelines, but beats them by standard and by cost,” Desjardins said.

The CRD is required by federal legislation to treat its sewage to a secondary or greater level by 2020, and the province has set a wastewater treatment deadline of 2018.

An extension to that provincial deadline will likely be necessary if the CRD can come up with a viable alternative to the current plan. Even with the current project, an extension will likely be needed to find an alternative site to McLoughlin Point.

“We have five of seven affected municipalities working on a new way forward,” Desjardins said. “We need Saanich and Oak Bay to come on-side, because we don’t want them to get left behind.”

Regardless of the outcome, the Seaterra program that included McLoughlin Point as a wastewater site is now effectively dead, she said.

“The sooner everyone understands that, the better off we’ll be coming up with solutions,” Desjardins said.

http://www.saanichnews.com/news/270520711.html
-------------------
What is Peak Phosphorus?

Richard Atwell
4 August 2014
Rite Plan facebook page

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-08-29/new-projection-of-peak-phosphorus

Domestic wastewater is built up of several components. One of the smallest components in terms of volume is urine, making up for less than 1% of the total wastewater stream.

1) Around 50% percent of the phosphorus in municipal wastewater originates from urine.

2) Despite its small volume, urine is a significant contributor of nutrients: it contains 85–90% nitrogen, 50–80% phosphorus, and 80–90% potassium excreted by humans.

3) Municipal wastewaters may contain from 5 to 20 mg/l of total phosphorous, of which 1-5 mg/l is organic and the rest in inorganic.

4) Normally secondary treatment can only remove 1-2 mg/l, so a large excess of phosphorous is discharged in the final effluent

(ref. http://www.lenntech.com/phosphorous-removal.htm)

Question:

CRD plans to builds a McLoughlin-Hartland system with phosphorus recovery at Hartland.

If the treated effluent is going to be discharged in large quantities through the outfall at McLoughlin and only a tiny fraction of liquid will be sent to Hartland via 18km for phosphorus recovery, what % of the Phosphorus will make it to Hartland vs. the rest that will be flushed out into the ocean? 50%? 40%? What is that ratio?

How will CRD's secondary process adapt to maximize phosphorus recovery over the next 50 years as the world-wide supply depletes?

It turns out that, the Federal regulations aren't concerned about phosphorus:

http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2010/2010-03-20/html/reg1-eng.html

"Limits for deleterious substances

Participants from all stakeholder groups and interested parties expressed the view that there should be additional parameters defined as deleterious substances within the proposed Regulations, including phosphorus, nitrogen, and fecal coliforms.

Environment Canada considers pollutants, such as phosphorous, nitrogen and fecal coliforms, to be best managed site-specifically, beyond the reductions achieved through the proposed Regulations."

I don't believe the provincial regulations are concerned about phosphorus discharge into the ocean environment as they are with inland water bodies that can be subject to eutrophication:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication

-----------------
CRD Sewage Meeting 13 August

Link to "The Esquimalt Bribe Flyer" and it starts off very inaccurately:

"Some people do not think we need to build a land-based wastewater treatment system for the core area. They feel the current and long-standing practice of pumping raw sewage offshore is acceptable"

AGENDA of 13 August, 9am meeting

1. Approval of Agenda
2. Adoption of Minutes of June 11 (continued on June 18) and July 9, 2014
3. Chair’s Remarks
4. Presentations/Delegations
5. Consideration of Amendments to the Liquid Waste Management - Core Area And Western Communities Service Establishment Bylaw
6. Update: Options Study for Sewage Treatment
7. Seaterra Budget Update No. 14
8. Notice of Motion (Revised) - Options For Wastewater Treatment - Director Hamilton
9. New Business
10. Adjournment

https://www.crd.bc.ca/about/document-library/Documents/committeedocuments/corearealiquidwastemanagementcommittee/20140813
---------------

LETTERS

Better environmental vision is needed (Pittman)
Times Colonist
9 Aug 2014, page A11
Re: “Lessons from U.S. drought,” editorial, Aug. 6.
Thanks for the recent editorials that highlight some of the concerns citizens raised during the sewage-plant debate, such as the natural beauty of our harbour and the need to conserve water.
As we experience near-drought conditions again this summer, I am still amazed that the Capital Regional District’s failed sewage plan had no waterrecovery component. In fact, it would have used additional water to pipe the sludge 18 kilometres uphill to Hartland and back again. That, and the $65 million spent while ignoring public concerns regarding such issues, is the kind of wasteful thinking that killed the plan.
The words of the editorial ring true and highlight the need for a better plan: “We shouldn’t be throwing water around like it’s money.” With Colwood and Esquimalt now leading the way in regional sewage-treatment options, perhaps our region has made a shift to more environmentally friendly technology and a better vision for the future.
Eric Pittman
Victoria
- GVPL PressReader edition

---------------

SEND IN YOUR LETTERS!