It is time for a new sewage-treatment plan
Too many questions remain in CRD’s land-based proposals
by Shaun Peck – Times Colonist - May 27th 2012
There has been little in the news lately about the Capital Regional District’s proposed plan to build a land based sewage treatment system.
The CRD has had difficulty getting commitments from senior governments for their one-third shares of the capital funding for the project. This delay is likely due to the current fiscal problems of both the provincial and federal governments and perhaps even to doubts about the uncertain cost- benefits of the proposed expenditure. With the delays in the funding approvals it is time to rethink the project.
Although the CRD has a plan approved by the BC minister of environment, there are many uncertainties in the plan. The plan submitted proposes a treatment plant at McLoughlin Point with a new marine outfall at the entrance to Victoria Harbour and a sludge treatment plant at the Hartland Land fill with a 15-kilometre double pipe joining the two. The preliminary cost estimate for this is now $791 million one-time in capital costs with annual operating costs of $14.5 million.
The capital costs (apart from land costs) are expected to be cost shared 1/3 each with the federal and provincial governments. This truly is a mega project (costing about 10 times that of Victoria’s Blue Bridge replacement), and like most mega projects, it can be expected to incur significant cost overruns.
In November 2010 the Capital Regional District submitted a business case to the province for funding approval. This approval has not yet been obtained 18 months later.
It is time to reconsider the whole project. Even with the current approved plan, there are many uncertainties.
- Will the CRD aquire land at Macaulay Point from the Department of National Defence rather than build a plant at the entrance to Victoria Harbour? This would negate the need to build a new deep-sea outfall at McLoughlin Point.
- Will the CRD obtain land in the upper harbour for a sludge-treatment plant, rather than pipe the sludge 15 kilometers to the Hartland landfill?
- How will the CRD process the sludge? Is it really going to be transported to the Lower Mainland for burning in a lime kiln after using a vast amount of energy to dry the sludge?
- The proposed budget needs to be revisited because some revenue (such as from selling natural gas) will be less, and the idea of selling the dried sludge to lime kilns is hypothetical at best. In fact, it will probably cost the CRD to dispose of the sludge in this manner.
If the overall marine, land and air environment are considered, it is clear that the current plan for building land based sewage treatment plants will have harmful effects.
The entire project needs to be rethought. I propose the following for a new liquid-waste management plan.
The first should be to evaluate the benefit of using finer screens that would enable the CRD to continue to meet the proposed federal regulatory measures for biochemical oxygen demand and total suspended solids. One such technology is the Norwegian- designed Salsnes filter. It is an alternative to a primary settling stage for a chemical/biological treatment facility and is being used worldwide. It would likely use less land and will save considerable cost.
A new plan would place more emphasis on preventing the contamination of storm- water drains that discharge directly onto Greater Victoria beaches, contaminating the environment and creating a potential public-health risk. The current sewer source control program is being continually improved, but there seems to be no definite strategy for preventing the beaches being contaminated from the storm drains. More emphasis should be placed on preventing inflow and infiltration to the sewers and preventing cross-connections from the sanitary sewer pipes to the rainwater drains, again creating a potential public health risk. A new plan would also include a strategy to recover heat from sewage.
A new plan would develop the right solution for Victoria’s sewage from ecological and sustainability perspectives. The plan would create the best solution that protects the marine, land, air and global environments. It would establish where energy can be recovered most efficiently. It would find the most cost effective solution for municipal, provincial and federal taxpayers.
There is still plenty of time to rethink the current sewage-treatment project plans. There is a real opportunity to engage the regulators in a review of Victoria’s unique marine receiving environment and its ability to assimilate the sewage naturally after appropriate filtering and screening. After all, don't we want to protect the environment in the most natural and positive way?
Dr Shaun Peck
Dr Peck was the Medical Health Officer for the CRD 1989-1995.