The CRD Sewage Treatment Plan: A Call for Action by the CRD

About Us:

This Petition has been prepared by ARESST, http://aresst.ca.

ARESST is an association of professional people with expert knowledge of wastewater treatment in the Victoria region. Its Board includes Chairman John Bergbusch, a former Mayor of Colwood and a former CRD director; Dr. Shaun Peck, former CRD medical health officer; and two wastewater treatment engineers.

Why is this important?

The core area municipalities of the Capital Regional District (Greater Victoria, BC) discharge screened liquid waste (99.97% water) through two deep ocean outfalls into the ocean waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This engineered sewage disposal system takes advantage of a unique set of conditions (well oxygenated marine tidal waters) to treat the sewage naturally. Extensive monitoring over more than 30 years has shown no measurable risk to human health, and a minimal effect and no significant harm to the marine environment. The judgment of more than ten marine scientists is that land based secondary sewage treatment is a low priority for protecting the marine environment. The judgment of six medical health officers is that there is no significant public health risk to the existing system.

This method of disposal that assimilates the effluent by natural treatment into this type of unique marine environment is supported by the World Health Organization and the World Bank.


Whereas:

• There is no significant public health risk from Victoria’s current method of offshore liquid-waste disposal, and

• Monitoring has clearly shown that there is a minimal impact on the local marine environment, and

• The Capital Regional District has a preliminary commitment for funding land-based secondary treatment from the Federal and Provincial Governments, but

• The required Federal environmental and aboriginal studies have not yet been done, nor has Treasury Board approved the project, and

• The Provincial funding share will not be paid until late in the project's development, and

• The municipal taxpayers are expected to contribute $200 - $800 a year towards land-based sewage treatment, calculated on a one-third share, but

• The municipal taxpayers are at risk of funding the entire cost of a scientifically unjustified project if work starts before funds are actually in hand, and

• Municipal taxpayers will be responsible for cost overruns, which are a common occurrence in large infrastructure projects,

we, the undersigned, hereby petition the Capital Regional District (as above).



Further Information:

The current liquid waste disposal system could be improved by:

1) repairing or replacing antiquated rainwater drains that allow sewage to spill onto local beaches after heavy rain, bypassing natural ocean treatment,

2) implementing a source control program for these rain water drains that prevent substances of concern reaching the beaches

3) further enhancing the already-exemplary sewer source control program, to prevent toxic materials from getting into the sewerage system.

See: www.rstv.ca www.maritimeawards.ca/forum2008

However the BC government, ignoring scientific evidence, has mandated and approved a plan for land-based secondary sewage treatment. The Federal Government on July 18th 2012 proclaimed Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations that require secondary sewage treatment across Canada irrespective of the receiving environments. For Victoria the construction costs are estimated at $782 Million, to be shared equally by municipal, provincial, and federal taxpayers. Annual operating costs of $14.5 Million and land costs will be paid 100% by local municipal taxpayers.

There is no evidence the proposed plan for land-based treatment for Victoria will offer any measurable benefit to the ocean environment and these plants will cause more harm to the global, terrestrial, and marine environments than the present effective natural treatment by the marine environment.