Household Costs For Sewage Treatment Vs. Typical Household Expenditures

Some thoughts on how the cost of sewage treatment fits into an average householder's finances and perhaps why the public has bought into the Seaterra plan without protest. The plan that is $2.2 billion.

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The initial capital cost and ongoing operating costs of Seaterra’s defunct sewage treatment plant were very significant totaling several billion dollars and these costs would be passed on to all households, business, industries and institutions in the core area.

Despite the cost implications to each of us, there seems to be a general lack of serious interest in the core area population in the whole subject of sewage treatment. As creatures of habit, we turn on our taps or flush our toilets without a second thought about where that water is going, what happens to it or what impacts it has. So, how significant is the cost of sewage treatment when considered in the context of all other household expenditures?

Household Costs for Sewage Treatment

Seaterra has estimated the household charges for providing sewage treatment in the DRD core area under various scenarios (June 27, 2014 report: https://www.crd.bc.ca/docs/default-source/crd-document-library/committeedocuments/seaterraprogramcommission/20140627/2014-06-27-actions-as-a-result-of-the-ministers-letter.pdf?sfvrsn=2). The scenarios include three treatment schemes: the failed centralized plant at McLoughlin Point and two alternative decentralized plant systems proposed in a 2008 study; two funding possibilities: with or without federal and provincial grants; and five levels of charges based on low to high property assessment/municipal taxation.

The household charges presented by Seaterra range from a low of $200 under their centralized scheme for a low property assessment to a high of $1900 for the 12 plant decentralized system for a high property assessment.

The project costs for Seaterra’s 6-plant and 12-plant decentralized options have been discredited by independent analysts and therefore the related household cost should be ignored. The household cost to consider in this discussion are those indicated in the first and second columns of Seaterra’s table.

For an average household, the annual costs to pay for Seaterra’s sewage treatment scheme would have ranged from $300 with funding to $660 without funding.

Typical Household Expenditures

Statistics Canada has reported the average household expenditure for British Columbia and for one-person households nation-wide (2012 and 2013 statistics: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/famil130k-eng.htm; http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/famil131b-eng.htm). The average household is a single family dwelling with 2.5 inhabitants and in the core areas of the CRD has a 2013 assessed value of $525,000.

The average 2013 household expenditure was $78,414 whereas the average 2013 one-person household expenditure was $44,709. Expenditures are divided into 20 categories as shown in the StatsCan tables.

Categories of household expenditures with values similar to Seaterra’s estimated sewage costs are summarized below. Some other categories of interest are also included.

Category of Household Expenditure	Average Household, 2013	One-person Household, 2013
Reading material and other printed matter	$193	$132
Games of chance	$232	$138
Tobacco products and alcoholic beverages	$1256	$988
Education	$1831	$436
Gifts of money, alimony and contributions to charity	$2155	$1867

Observations and Comments

Household expenditures for sewage treatment would be a very small component of total expenditures: 0.4-0.8% for the average household and 0.7-1.5% for one-person households.

Average household expenditures for reading material, other printed matter and games of chance are similar to projected charges for sewage treatment.

Seaterra maintains that distributed tertiary treatment is more expensive that its defunct centralized secondary plan. However, some vendor presentations at the Westside Innovation Days held recently at Royal Roads University suggested solutions could be provided for significantly less cost that Seaterra’s plan. In other words, a better outcome at a more affordable household cost for all.