Sludge Watch ==> Victoria BC -wait 15 years for sewage treatment ?

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=117&cat=23&id=720596&more=

Breaking Sewage News



By Andrew MacLeod
Sep 01 2006

It may be as long as 15 years before the Capital Regional District 
introduces secondary treatment for the region's sewage, according to a 
request for qualifications the Capital Regional District issued for 
consulting firms interested in writing a "Decision Information Report" for 
CRD politicians.

"Information should be provided on the relative merits of providing primary 
treatment initially, followed by secondary treatment in, say, ten to fifteen 
years, compared to providing secondary treatment initially," says the 
request, which mentions there's a $200,000 budget to complete the report.

The request document also suggests that it will be at least three and a half 
years until we have any treatment at all. In July 21 letter, provincial 
environment minister Barry Penner ordered the CRD to submit a sewage 
treatment plan to him for approval by June 30, 2007. The request says it 
will likely take two years of public process "to identify, select and 
acquire the preferred site(s) and a further six months to obtain regulatory 
approvals."

That's too long, says a blistering e-mail sent by the T. Buck Suzuki 
Environmental Foundation's clean water director, Jim McIsaac, to CRD chair 
and Victoria mayor Alan Lowe. "The timelines . . . show that the CRD is 
incapable of moving forward with sewage treatment in any timely manner," he 
writes. "This is totally unacceptable. To study the land options for the 
next 3 years is ridiculous, to propose primary treatment as an option for 
the following 15 years or so, is absurd."

The outfalls off Macaulay and Clover points already qualify as provincial 
contaminated sites. While the CRD dithers, he says, the pollution continues 
to build, creating a larger and larger contaminated site.

Lowe did not immediately return a call to his cellphone.