The Capital Regional District board should not hesitate to accept the regional sewage-treatment plan recommended by an independent panel, not just because of the looming deadline for federal funding, but because the plan is a good one.
And it’s time for Greater Victoria to stop flushing its toilets into the sea.
The project board mandated by the province is recommending that the CRD build a single tertiary-treatment plant at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt.
The estimated cost for the system, including pipelines and upgrades to other components, is $765 million, far less expensive than other options considered by the panel and close to the original estimate of $785 million for the project.
Two years ago, the CRD was on the verge of building a single treatment plant at McLoughlin Point, a plan seven years in the making. But that plan was derailed when Esquimalt rejected an application to alter the zoning for the facility to accommodate a slightly larger footprint.
That sent the CRD and municipalities on a two-year quest for different options, with little progress. In May, with a federal funding deadline approaching, Community Minister Peter Fassbender stepped in, took the process out of the hands of politicians and turned it over to an expert panel called the Core Area Waste Water Treatment Project Board.
It was a welcome move, but one that should have been made two years previously.
Unfettered by political considerations, regional silos and competing municipal interests, the panel set to work with focus and purpose, achieving its objective in less than six months.
It’s no coincidence that the panel’s recommendation is almost identical to the previous plan. The McLoughlin Point plan was not something plucked out of the air — it was the result of years of studies, designing and calculations done by people who knew what they were doing.
Although panel chairwoman Jane Bird says the recommended plan is not the same proposal that was rejected two years ago by Esquimalt, she says it is built on the original plan.
“What we’re recommending adds value to what has been recommended before in the following ways: One, we think we have a plant that is more responsive to the concerns of residents. It’s a smaller footprint; it’s set back from the foreshore; it has a much more tiered green roof; it has extensive landscaping,” Bird said. “Secondly, it has tertiary treatment.”
Although the original plan has been embellished and tweaked (in all the right places), the original plan was sound, and the report the current panel released this week is a vindication of all the work that went before.
What went wrong was the process. The CRD dropped the ball; the new panel picked up the ball and carried it across the goal line.
We cannot afford to lose momentum. The timeline has been pushed to the brink — the CRD must submit a formal business case to the provincial and federal governments by Sept. 30 or risk losing up to $500 million in grants.
The time is past for dithering about where to put the plant. It’s pointless to argue that sewage treatment is not needed — the provincial and federal governments have clearly said they won’t budge from that stance.
The public should be kept informed, but there has been ample public consultation. Let the experts do their job free of political wrangling and NIMBYism.
It’s time to stop talking and start building.
