The Wastewater Issue – What do we really want to fix?
 The issues in a nutshell - Click to view |
 The complete story - Click to view |
These videos describes how politics threatens to defy science and common sense when it comes to the treatment and disposal of Victoria’s wastewater.
x
Guernsey Does Not Need to Treat Sewage Fully
BBC News, 16 December 2011
The current method of pumping sewage out to sea was not found to impact on the marine environment.xxRead More…
x
Revenues from dried sewage sludge will simply not materialize
by Dr. Shaun Peck
Dr. Shaun Peck, Public Health Consultant
On November 10th the CRD was informed by its consultants that sewage treatment plants create a noxious, odourous concentrated sludge that is considered a dangerous material and is a Public Health risk to sewage plant workers. (This I completely agree with). Therefore the CRD needs to put in extra treatment to treat something it did not need to create in the first place. The consultants are therefore recommending thermophilic anaerobic digesters to produce pathogen free biosolids. This will require a great deal of energy.xRead More…
x
Wastewater Treatment: is it worth the $ 1.43 Billion price tag?
Rob McDermot, PEng, Letter to 4th Dimension, Newsletter, of Victoria Branch Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC, October 2010
The concept of natural sewage treatment has been criticized in the media, but in fact waste treatment is well recognized as a useful ecosystem service contributing to human well-being (Costanza et al., 1997; Boyd and Banzhaf, 2007). The focus of environmental protection is changing to preserving such ecosystem services to the benefit of both human beings and the natural environment (e.g., USEPA, 2008).
It makes no sense to replace a natural ecosystem service with a human creation that is energy inefficient and has other harmful environmental consequences. Read More…
x
Sewage project damage will be irreversible
Ted Dew-Jones, letter to Victoria News, October 22
University of Victoria oceanography professor Jack Littlepage, who wrote one chapter of my book Victoria’s Sewage Circus, points out that “we should be promoting our system as one of the most efficient and environmentally sound systems in North America.” Read More…
x
Advocacy group seeks answers to Greater Victoria sewage questions
Roszan Holmen, Victoria News and Saanich News, October 14, 2010
Dr. Shun Peck
As ARESST passes its one-year anniversary, the activist group opposed to secondary sewage treatment continues to questions the changing plans of the Capital Regional District.
“We’re questioning what they’re going to do with it [sludge],” said Shaun Peck, former medical health officer for the B.C. Health Ministry and a board member at large for ARESST. “Are they going to turn it into energy on site? Are they going to send it to cement kilns in Vancouver by barge? They’re talking about all these things.” Read More…
What Authorities on Victoria’s Sewage Have to Say (click to view)
 |
 |
|
| Dr. Keith Martin, MP | Dr. Chris Garett | Dr. Shaun Peck, MD |
The Issue
CFAX polls (23-Apr-08 and 13-Mar-10) have shown that Victorians are strongly divided on the sewage treatment issue. We believe the public involvement process has been biased and carefully managed to conceal decisions that had already been made; decisions to fund an incredibly costly sewage treatment plan that is not going to do what the CRD would have us think it will do:
- It will do nothing to improve the health of our ocean environment
- It will do little to prevent trace amounts of chemicals and pharmaceuticals from entering the ocean
- It will not result in the removal of the Macaulay and Clover Point outfalls
- It will not change shellfish closures in waters off Victoria
- It will do nothing to address the more serious storm water contamination
What it will do:
- It will generate a concentrated sludge with expensive and complex disposal problems
- It will close the door to resource recovery from sewage
- It will increase greenhouse gas production
- It will discourage new developments from adopting green technologies, such as Dockside Green
- It will discourage the adoption of new technologies to deal with trace chemicals and pharmaceuticals
- It will siphon away $1 Billion from Education, Health Care, Social Services, Urban Renewal…
- We will be paying for this system through reduced services, higher taxes and rents ..for generations
We invite citizens of the CRD to join us in urging the CRD and BC governments to choose the option the majority of people want: to stop the project. Join ARESST and get involved!
Where is the Mandate?
Brian Burchill
March 25, 2010
Is the billion$ boondoggle sewage project based on a phantom mandate? Committee member Vic Derman knows there isn’t such a mandate…..READ MORE…..
Convictions We Hold in Common
- Victoria should have an integrated waste-water management system which deals with sewage and storm-water in the manner best suited to the local environment.
- The system should be based upon sound science and engineering, presenting well thought-out solutions to clearly identified problems in a cost-efficient manner.
- The deadline-driven plans being promoted by the CRD do not meet these criteria; hundreds of millions are being wasted on inappropriate solutions to non-existent problems while the real threats to our environment are ignored – all at a time of severe fiscal constraints.
Your Comments