June 28, 2015

CRD SEWAGE NEWS THIS WEEK
Saanich council rejects Watkiss Way sewage site in tight vote
Sewage process transparent so far
Mayor of Langford blasts Saanich over potential sewage site rejection

LETTERS
Saanich old guard refuses to compromise (Bickerton)
ALR site too expensive for sewage plant (Brownoff)
Victoria’s regional government is feeble"(Olson)
Saanich fails politicians' promise of open dialogue in CRD sewage site selection (Regier)
Saanich council's rejection of sewage site was 'paternalistic' (Williamson)

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Saanich council rejects Watkiss Way sewage site in tight vote

Daniel Palmer
Saanich News
Jun 23, 2015 at 12:00 PM

The possibility of a centralized sewage treatment site across the street from Victoria General Hospital is effectively dead after Saanich council refused to send the 12-hectare property to the Capital Regional District for consideration.

On Monday night, council voted 5-4 to reject further consideration of the Watkiss Way property, with the majority arguing that sewage treatment facilities shouldn't be built on agricultural land outside Saanich's urban containment boundary. The urban containment boundary protects rural land from most forms of development and would require a public vote for an exception.

"There's some misunderstanding maybe that we didn't look at this site, but at the CRD they did look at this site and evaluate it, high level, and the CRD directors turned this site down," said Coun. Judy Brownoff, who voted down the proposal along with councillors Dean Murdock, Susan Brice, Vic Derman and Vicki Sanders. Mayor Richard Atwell asked for further information from Brownoff about the CRD's previous rejection of the site, but Brownoff said the discussion had occurred in-camera.

"I don't support an industrial use like this in the ALR and I don't support opening up the Urban Containment Boundary," Brownoff said.

A positive vote would have allowed the site to undergo technical analysis at the Eastside Select Committee, a regional group comprised of regional CRD directors and staff from Victoria, Oak Bay and Saanich who are responsible for evaluating the most acceptable sites for sewage treatment. A similar Westside Committee is comprised of officials from Esquimalt, Langford, Colwood, View Royal and the Songhees Nation. The committees have already shortlisted "technically feasible" sites across the CRD, but had asked private land owners to submit property for evaluation before June 24. The Eastside group required private landowners to get approval from their local council before forwarding land for consideration; no such restriction existed at the Westside Committee.

Coun. Leif Wergeland, who voted with the minority, said while he had strong views about not allowing sewage treatment on the ALR, the public would still have an opportunity to weigh in on the site, should it be selected at the CRD.

"I think it's important we let our citizens decide … I think it was the sense of the (Eastside) Committee that the whole process was going to be open to the public, they would be very much involved," Wergeland said. "I hope we don't get caught twice in not allowing our residents to have a say in where they'd like to have a sewage treatment plant."

Mayor Richard Atwell agreed and argued council was shutting down public process by rejecting the Watkiss Way site without more information. Coun. Colin Plant noted sewage treatment sites have already been built on ALR land in both Sooke and on the Saanich Peninsula, and said council should keep an open mind until it has more information.

"We aren't experts. I think it would be in the interest of our residents to forward this to CRD, simply for consideration," Atwell said. "Whether or not this is technically feasible, we'll figure that out down the road."

Peter Ferguson, an engineer who did preliminary evaluative work on the Watkiss Way site for its owner, Allen Vandekerkove, told council the site contained ample space for both wastewater treatment and biosolids processing facilities. Ray Parks of BIM Consulting, also speaking in the interests of Vandekerkove, said VGH had expressed interest in harvesting recovered heat and gas from the sewage treatment process.

Ferguson added the site was close to the highway so trucks wouldn't need to pass through residential areas to access the site, and its central proximity in the region meant it could possibly serve both westside and eastside communities. An option was also included to build greenhouses onsite to take advantage of recovered heat and greywater, which Ferguson and Parks argued could turn non-producing ALR land into productive agricultural space.

Murdock expressed concern that by approving ALR land for sewage site consideration, council would be opening the door to other ALR land owners. Atwell reminded Murdock that the CRD had set a June 24 deadline for private land submissions, so further proposals would expire before the cut-off date.

"I'm not convinced we've exhausted all the opportunities within the core," Murdock said. "I'm not prepared to send the message that we'll offer up our ALR lands for that use."

Plant reminded his colleagues that they'd agreed to send Saanich parks land to the Eastside Committee for initial sewage site consideration behind closed doors.

"But we didn't ask the general public at the time how they felt about (parks)," Plant said. "The public came out very clearly and said no. … I've talked to so many people in the streets, they're open to new ways of doing things."

"Wise decisions don't come from preempting the outcome at the beginning," Haynes said. "That means let's include as many sites as people come forward with."

Derman voiced concern about the size of the pipes that could potentially be required to pump sewage from areas like downtown Victoria to rural Saanich, and said he found it difficult to compare the Watkiss Way proposal to other potential sites with the proponent's added "technical solutions" like greenhouses and energy recovery to VGH.

"You're looking at a site the proponent has chosen to flesh out considerably. … It becomes very difficult to make that comparison," Derman said.

Before the vote was taken, Atwell had the final word: "I think this site has huge potential and this will be a watershed moment in the creation of our sewage project. … This council will essentially be responsible for eliminating an option for the public."

Voting in favour of the Watkiss Way site for consideration were: Atwell, Haynes, Plant, Wergeland.

Voting opposed to the Watkiss Way site for consideration were: Brice, Brownoff, Derman, Murdock, Sanders.

The CRD’s $788-million Seaterra program came to a halt in April 2014 after Esquimalt council rejected rezoning for a wastewater treatment facility at McLoughlin Point along the Inner Harbour entrance.

editor@saanichnews.com

http://www.saanichnews.com/news/309363021.html
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Sewage process transparent so far

Editorial - Goldstream News Gazette
Jun 23, 2015 at 10:00 AM

It came as no real surprise to us that the majority of potential wastewater treatment sites for the west side of Greater Victoria are located on the West Shore, primarily in Colwood.

Despite consistent development in the past couple of years, our area still has the most open land of any in the region outside the Saanich Peninsula, which retains its farm country status for the most part.

The idea of publicizing a relatively large number of sites – 20 separate lots, both public and privately owned were identified, similar to the number for the eastside – is a refreshing change from the one large plant strategy previously put forward with Macloughlin Point.

We still shake our heads over that debacle, how the site was chosen and planning moved forward for a larger-than-allowed plant there; despite the fact appropriate zoning for such a structure had not yet been secured from the Township of Esquimalt.

In announcing 20 potential sites for the location of whatever aspects of this new idea for a sewage treatment system are decided upon, Westside Select Committee leaders Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins and Colwood Mayor Carol Hamilton distanced the current group from the old guard, who pushed hard for the Macloughlin plan.

“In my mind, the most important thing here is that we don’t do the missteps that we may have done in the past; that we ensure the public is always part of the process,” Desjardins said last week.

Is the prevalence of sites in Colwood and Langford going to cause the same ruckus in those communities the Macloughlin plan did in Esquimalt? None of the sites identified will likely be immune from public criticism.

But at least the process of determining the shortlisted sites appears so far to be more transparent than it was in the previous attempt to get the provincially and federally mandated sewage treatment done. While technical open houses may not hit the mark with all residents, in the case of this multi-million dollar projects, there should be no opportunity for the public to say their elected officials aren’t listening.

http://www.goldstreamgazette.com/opinion/309340551.html

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Mayor of Langford blasts Saanich over potential sewage site rejection

Daniel Palmer
Goldstream News Gazette
Jun 25, 2015 at 11:00 AM

Langford’s mayor believes Saanich councillors are shirking public process after they refused to forward a 12-hectare property for consideration to the Capital Regional District’s eastside sewage committee.

Saanich council voted 5-4 to block the 12-hectare Watkiss Way site – across the street from Victoria General Hospital – from further consideration as a sewage treatment site, with the majority arguing sewage facilities shouldn’t be built on agricultural land outside Saanich’s Urban Containment Boundary. The boundary protects rural land from most forms of development and would require a public vote to alter, Coun. Judy Brownoff told councillors on Monday night.

“There’s some misunderstanding maybe that we didn’t look at this site, but at the CRD they did (previously) look at this site and evaluate it, high level, and the CRD directors turned this site down,” said Brownoff, who subsequently voted down the proposal along with Dean Murdock, Susan Brice, Vic Derman and Vicki Sanders.

“I don’t support an industrial use like this in the ALR and I don’t support opening up the Urban Containment Boundary,” Brownoff said.

On Tuesday, Langford Mayor Stew Young said Saanich councillors are playing politics at a time when they should be engaging the public on finding the best site for sewage treatment.

“I don’t see how politicians think they know better than the experts,” Young said. “Judy Brownoff seems to be a big advocate of not doing anything in Saanich, but she was all in favour of cramming McLoughlin down the Esquimalt mayor’s throat. Now, she can’t even put up her site in a public process. That, to me, is not what you’re elected for.”

The CRD’s $788-million Seaterra program came to a halt in April 2014 after Esquimalt council rejected rezoning for a wastewater treatment facility at McLoughlin Point along the Inner Harbour entrance.

After last November’s municipal elections, the CRD established the Eastside Select Committee, a regional group comprised of regional CRD directors and staff from Victoria, Oak Bay and Saanich who are responsible for evaluating the most publicly acceptable and technically feasible sites for sewage treatment. A similar Westside Committee is comprised of officials from Esquimalt, Langford, Colwood, View Royal and the Songhees Nation.

The committees have already shortlisted sites across the CRD, but had asked private land owners to submit property for evaluation before June 24. The Eastside group required private landowners to get approval from their local council before forwarding land for consideration; no such submission restriction existed at the Westside Committee.

Responding to some of Young’s criticism, Brownoff said it was “unfortunate” Langford’s mayor had spoken out on the matter.

“Some of the challenges around this site is you have to collect all the raw sewage from the harbour area where we collect it and pipe and pump it up to this site,” Brownoff said.

Brownoff added the Watkiss Way site also doesn’t adhere to Saanich’s policies around the use of rural and farm lands or those of the Urban Containment Boundary.

“One of our Official Community Plan policies is if we want to open the (Urban Containment Boundary), we must go to referendum or plebiscite of our residents,” she said.

Young said the CRD has already spent around $100 million on the sewage treatment project and achieved very little. He said the Westside and Eastside committees were established “to get the professionals, not politicians, who know what they’re doing to evaluate the site and then bring it forward.”

“The site may not have merit or be picked, but the public has the right to know. You don’t get five politicians together and say, ‘This is no good,’” said Young, referring to the majority vote at Saanich council to reject the site.

“Sure it’s ALR, but it’s in the middle of a forested area, it’s near an interchange, we have residual use for green initiatives right there, and it’s not too small like McLoughlin. This site could do everything on that site and virtually nobody would even see the building.”

Peter Ferguson, an engineer who did preliminary evaluative work on the Watkiss Way site for Vandekerkove, told council the site contained ample space for both wastewater treatment and biosolids processing facilities. Ray Parks of BIM Consulting, also speaking in the interest of Vandekerkove, said VGH had expressed interest in harvesting recovered heat and gas from the sewage treatment process. Parks added that a greenhouse operator had also expressed interest in partnering on the project to use recovered heat.

Coun. Colin Plant noted at the council meeting that sewage treatment sites have already been built on ALR land in both Sooke and on the Saanich Peninsula, and said council should keep an open mind until it has more information. The CRD voted in 2006 to not consider ALR land for the core area sewage treatment facilities.

Young said rather than use the “lame excuse” of protecting ALR land, Saanich should analyze the site “from a viability option.”

“Why would you make a decision that takes out a site with good partners like the hospital for heat recovery and greenhouse production? It does have some merit. If it fails the test, at least the public won’t ask the question about it later. Then we as politicians are very transparent,” he said.

Before the vote was taken on Monday, Atwell had the final word in council chambers: “I think this site has huge potential and this will be a watershed moment in the creation of our sewage project. …This council will essentially be responsible for eliminating an option for the public.”

Voting in favour of the Watkiss Way site for consideration were Atwell, Haynes, Plant and Wergeland.

http://www.goldstreamgazette.com/news/309866831.html
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LETTERS

Saanich old guard refuses to compromise (Bickerton)

TIMES COLONIST
JUNE 25, 2015

Re: “Saanich rules out ALR sewage site,” June 23.

It was disappointing to watch a handful of incumbent Saanich councillors defeat a possible sewage-treatment site on the boundary of Saanich and View Royal.

The old guard hid behind phrases such as “not within the urban containment boundary,” “ALR land,” “treed acreage,” “CRD discussion only in camera,” “confusing pipe dimensions.”

Three of the incumbents have sat on Capital Regional District committees that have spent more than $60 million with little results. The group still seems to believe that the public can listen, but as councillors, they know what is best for Saanich.

Fortunately, councillors Fred Haynes, Colin Plant and Leif Wergeland and Mayor Richard Atwell were at least prepared to listen, compromise and let the public decide if the site proved to be unsuitable.

In the audience were several retirees from different professional backgrounds. As the public is now allowed direct input, we learned that huge, unchecked, unquestioned increases have occurred in the budget. Let us hope the experts in the crowd can educate the councillors, and these engaged citizens might run in the next municipal election.

If the mayors of the surrounding municipalities had been allowed to vote, at least the site would have followed a fair and open democratic process.

This is another example of why there needs to be more discussion on uniting aspects of governance for the good of the entire capital region. For now, Saanich taxpayers are stuck with some councillors who appear to listen but seem to do as they please.

Art Bickerton
Saanich

http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/saanich-old-guard-refuses-to-compromise-1.1978415
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ALR site too expensive for sewage plant (Brownoff):
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/alr-site-too-expensive-for-sewage-plant-1.1982063

1947 Burnside West (2013): 
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Victoria’s regional government is feeble"(Olson): http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/victoria-s-regional-government-is-feeble-1.1982065http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/victoria-s-regional-government-is-feeble-1.1982065
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Saanich fails politicians' promise of open dialogue in CRD sewage site selection (Regier)

Saanich News
Jun 26, 2015

A month ago some concerned residents questioned the objectivity of information presented in the Eastside Technically Feasible Site Profiles released for discussion at roundtable meetings. Officials reassured us “that interrogating this information in a public setting, is the best thing that can happen. ... it happens at the table, in real time, in front of the public.”

We were encouraged by this bold response, participated in the discussions along with many others and provided our feedback – believing once again in the integrity of the process. Now a majority of Saanich council has voted against a motion to consider a potential site on Watkiss Way put forward by its owner. This rejection is unfathomable! The reasons for denying the public its say flying in the face of the arguments made earlier for open and honest dialogue.

While I am opposed to a large single regional treatment plant, I believe this site should have been considered for the multitude of other opportunities it offered. This did not have to be a centralized facility with large pipes coming from downtown Victoria – it could have been a smaller distributed facility receiving sewage just from the Craigflower and Marigold pump stations; it could have been the site for a gasification and energy conversion site receiving residual solids from other treatment plants as well as organics; it could have been a demonstration site for the reuse of reclaimed resources from tertiary treatment facilities and a profitable vegetable operation.

Unfortunately this ill-considered decision by a few Saanich councilors has again denied the residents of this region the opportunity to consider innovative, forward-looking, broad-scope, outside-the-box solutions to our sewage problems.

Oscar Regier
Victoria

http://www.saanichnews.com/opinion/letters/309874431.html
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Saanich council's rejection of sewage site was 'paternalistic' (Williamson)

Saanich News
Jun 25, 2015

Re: Saanich council rejects Watkiss Way sewage site in tight vote, saanichnews.com (June 23)

Monday night’s Saanich council meeting displayed, yet again, how long term, entrenched councillors, are not interested in public participation in important decisions because they think they know best. A proposal to add a possible sewage treatment site for consideration by the core group was voted down. Councillors expounded at length on matters for which they had no expertise.

They insisted they did know better than an engineer who was present. One councillor even stated that “the pipes would be so big you could drive a Smartcar through them. Absolute nonsense.

All that was asked was for the site to be put to the engineering tests that other proposed sites will be put to.  But they denied that possibility because of their paternalistic ideas that “We know best”.

Any possibility of public input, discussion, or comment was shut down by this decision. So much for openness, accountability and transparency.

Bill Williamson
Saanich

http://www.saanichnews.com/opinion/letters/309873991.html