I am extremely concerned with the site selection of the Capital Regional District wastewater facility locations. There is only a promise of future tertiary treatment with no inclusion of wetlands, resource recovery or gasification technology. Some of the appointed panel members were previously involved in projects with huge cost overruns. Being appointed to a board does not make them experts.
The CRD will be getting a secondary treatment facility in a tsunami zone that will harm the environment. The carbon emissions due to conveyance piping to Hartland Road is evidence that they are not qualified sewage engineers. With cost overruns, this secondary project will be over $1 billion.
This is unacceptable to the taxpayer. There is no need for redundant expensive outfall piping. If this was necessary, we would have sewage pipes from the Prairies.
Saanich director Vic Derman proposed the Nigel Valley site that is centrally located, due for renewal, socially acceptable, outside the tsunami zone and near a trunk line. The seven affected mayors should demand a cost-benefit analysis, resource recovery and gasification possibilities for this site. Heat, energy and clean water can be utilized on site. If extra energy is produced it can be put back into the power grid and bio-fuel can be used in transporting the bi-products.
If the secondary plan goes ahead, expect to pay $1 per flush, a toilet that “runs-on” for 30 years with no bathroom tissue. Be careful shaking hands. The proposed site locations smell like the white elephant in the room, that needs a scrub.
I believe the taxpayers deserve better site accountability for the money being spent. Fear and greed will likely have some of the CRD directors vote to build in a tsunami zone, use outdated technology, a cramped location, destroy the surrounding environment with pipes, then flush chemical toxins into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
We will all share in the costs of the $1 billion toilet that still flushes directly into the sea.
Art Bickerton
Saanich