Click here for more video of the July 22, 2009 CALWC meeting.

Public Invited to Address Committee

The public will get a chance to comment on the issue of wastewater treatment at two upcoming Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee meetings.

The first meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 12, 8:30am at City of Victoria Council Chambers and the second meeting on Wednesday, August 19, 7pm at Emmanual Baptist Church, 2121 Cedar Hill Cross Rd.

These meetings are part of the current phase of public consultation, which included open houses and workshops held by the CRD in June and July.

At the last Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee meeting, CRD staff made available the “Public Consultation Summary Report” of those workshops.

The report contains public comments left by participants at the open houses and workshops, and also includes comments submitted online.

The CRD also recently issued Volume One of their new Core Area Liquid Waste Management Project Newsletter, detailing the siting options for the Saanich East-North Oak bay site.

The issue under consideration during this round of public consultation is where to put a secondary treatment plant in Saanich East-North Oak Bay (SENOB). Two of the candidate sites are on UVIC property and the third is in the Haro Woods, a popular urban forest area across from the Queen Alexandra Children’s hospital which the CRD purchased in 2008. The two UVIC options involve a pumping station in the Haro Woods.

Recently the committee made a decision to choose one of three planning options presented to them by external consultants. The final choice, Option 1, includes: “Three treatment plants, and one wet weather flow plant; heat energy recovery using effluent from all three plants; wet weather flow at Clover Point and organic energy and phosphorus recovery at two plants” The cost of this plan is estimated at $1.2 billion, with an annual operating cost of $23.5 million. The projected annual resource recovery revenues are estimated to be $3.6 million.

The SENOB wastewater treatment plant will be a liquid only processing plant. This means that solids will be reintroduced into the sewer pipes for conveyance to the central wastewater facility.

The decision of where to put the SENOB plant is one of many that the CRD is facing right now. The BC Ministry of the Environment has given the deadline of December 31, 2009 for finalization of an amendment to the CRD Liquid Waste Management Plan.

According to the CRD website Waste Water Treatment Made Clear, future decisions that the committee will need to make include: What functions each site will serve, how sludge will be dealt with, where it will be processed, what technologies will be employed at each site, and how planning will allow for future technological innovations.

To help guide it’s decision making process, the CRD is using the Sustainability Assessment Framework, an enhanced triple bottom line (TBL) approach that considers the economic, social and environmental effects of different alternatives.

The first phase of the CRD’s Community Engagement Framework, consisting of workshops and open houses held from March 30-May 7, invited residents to participate in the development of the Triple Bottom Line Community Principles.

The next phase, ‘Continued Consultation on Sites & Community Enhancement’ is expected to take place in September and October.

While the public is encouraged to contact it’s representatives on whatever issue concerns them, these upcoming special committee meetings are intended to receive comment directly related to the siting of the SENOB plant.

Registration to attend the meetings is not required. Registration is only required for those who wish to speak to the Committee. Public comment is limited to five minutes per person, and you must pre-register by phone (250-360-3001) or through the CRD website.

Responsible Sewage Treatment Victoria
-”an association of environmentalists, scientists, engineers, health care professionals and concerned individuals formed to apply the principles of evidence-based policy and management to the issue of sewage treatment for Victoria”

Poop: People Opposed to Outfall Pollution
-Poop’s mission: To have FUN educating the public of the problems of dumping raw sewage into the Juan de Fuca Strait and raising money to build a sewage treatment plant.

Save Haro Woods
-from the homepage: “Haro Woods is one of the few urban forests remaining in the Municipality of Saanich. Concerned citizens have spent considerable effort for over 30 years to keep this beautiful area intact. This includes thousands of volunteer hours recently devoted to the removal of invasive species (blackberry, broom etc.) from one of its sections.”

Sewage Treatment Action Group
The Sewage Treatment Action Group (“STAG”) is a group of citizens who have serious concerns with the developing sewage treatment plans for Greater Victoria and specifically Esquimalt.

Greater Victoria Water Watch
-From the homepage: “We see water as a shared legacy, a public trust and a collective responsibility. Access to clean water is a human right. Ownership, operation and management of water systems should be public. Conservation is vital. Water connects all life.”

Georgia Straight Alliance
-Extensive link section as part of their Victoria Sewage Campaign

Consultants to the CRD  on this project (past and present)

CH2ML

Associated Engineering

Ker Wood Leidel Associates Ltd.

Stantec Consulting Ltd.

Ipsos Reid

Westland Resource Group

Related Media Links
Click here for an extensive collection of media links related to this issue.