If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium’s sewage. The Capital Regional District is sending some directors on tours of sewage-sludge processing facilities in Europe, Canada and the United States. The trips would give them firsthand exposure to systems that work in other places, so they can make an informed decision about the best way to process Greater Victoria’s sludge.
As foreign trips go, it’s hardly on a par with a tour of the great wineries of Burgundy, but it nevertheless screams: “Junket.”
The plan calls for a delegation to spend a week in October visiting eight European locations in Germany, Spain, Belgium and France. Depending on what they learn in Europe, that would be followed in November by visits to sites in Ontario, Saskatchewan and/or Florida.
What’s it all for?
Leftover sludge from the $765-million sewage treatment project would be pumped about 18 kilometres from the treatment plant that will be built at McLoughlin Point to the Hartland landfill. Anaerobic digesters at Hartland would convert the sludge to Class-A biosolids, a soil supplement. (Anaerobic digestion uses micro-organisms to break down organic matter.)
The CRD board is also looking at ways to use the sewage sludge, including mixing it with solid wastes such as food scraps and processing it to create revenue by, for example, generating electricity, heat or fuel.
Sooke Mayor Maja Tait, who chairs the integrated resource management committee, said: “I think it’s good to visit plants that are up and running, that are similar in size and scale so that we fully understand how it all works and can get the right feedback from the operators as to what their lessons learned are and the challenges.”
But why do directors have to travel to Europe at $8,500 per person? Surely their questions can be answered with written material, videos, video-conference calls and discussions with experts. If anyone goes to these foreign sewage sites, it should be engineers who have the knowledge to evaluate what they are looking at.
With CRD staff, consultants and private firms bidding on the job, a small army of experts is at work on the region’s sewage project. In comparison, what could the directors learn in a week or even two weeks of visiting plants in other countries that they haven’t already learned in the years they have been discussing sewage treatment?
Metchosin Mayor John Ranns, who calls the trip “smoke and mirrors,” says the district is getting the process backward. Instead of trying to become experts, the directors should look at what the real experts say they can deliver.
“What should be done is you put it out [for expressions of interest],” he said. “You see what comes in, and, if they guarantee it, then what the hell does it matter? We don’t have to be the experts.”
Ranns says some of the companies interested in bidding have already said they can use raw sludge in their processes, so the district wouldn’t need to spend $189 million on digesters in a sludge-treatment plant.
Throughout the sewage process, too many people with too little knowledge have tied the project in knots. It’s at the stage where we have to stand back and leave things to smart, experienced professionals who build sewage systems for a living.
The CRD directors do have some important to decisions to make. A trip to far-off sewage plants is not going to make those decisions any easier — or any better.
