A lot is happening on the sewage issue: … a vendor says the whole region can be serviced for $250 million; the upcoming CALWMC meeting has a packed agenda; business owners are calling for change; RITE planners are asking for consideration of distributed tertiary treatment with gasification; public events held in Saanich and Oak Bay; roundtable on siting sewage treatment was held in Esquimalt; TCAC is being recalled; Mayor of Langford wants Seaterra to stop. Wow. We hope you enjoy getting all this wrapped up in our weekly update!
Next update we’ll talk about language. The choice of words people use determines the outcomes. For example, the word “biosolids” implies anaerobic digestion. Disposal of “treated effluent” implies polluted secondary treatment. We need (a) neutral words for the times no system is preferred and (b) a chart showing the “words” and how they relate to treatment solution. For the time being, stay away from the the word “biosolids” unless you mean it. Use “residuals”. Also avoid “treated effluent” unless you also include “reclaimed water”.
Tertiary Distributed with Gasification
This is the new way to describe the RITE plan in three simple words. It sums up all the other objectives into a nice package. Our current goals include: seeing a space for true experts in gasification to come and educate us.
Pivotal IRM & Biowater Technology
On the last Westside Innovation Day, Pivotal IRM and Biowater Technology presented a complete sewage treatment and sludge management system for the Region.
For the whole region Pivotal/Biowater says it about $250M vs CRD Plan costing $782M. This $250M includes land acquisition, trucks, buildings, redundant systems, training, uniforms, etc, etc, etc,. A very detailed analysis.
The proposal uses the existing pipe infrastructure and includes costs for local connections to the new facilities.
In summary, it can be structured to be a profitable business rather than a drain on taxpayers. It can save taxpayers $ billions in operating costs and debt charges over the life of the facilities. The technology is proven and stable in several countries. New plants are coming on-line all the time. The plants are very small in size and can be put where you want them to maximize use of existing infrastructure and resource recovery. The systems would be future proof because it exceeds all the performance requirements and standards and can be easily expanded when needed. For more details see our blog posting
Interview on Ian Jessop show
See our blog posting and listen to the interview on CFAX to see how it is possible the total project cost could be just $250 to $450 million
CALWMC - May 13th - Agenda
The agenda is packed with items that are going to change everything. There is a letter from business owners calling for Seaterra to be disbanded. Plus there is a second letter from a business owner:
Also presented are the Terms of Reference (TOR) for technical help. But they are just repeating the same call for biosolids expertise and there is no mention of gasification expertise. This is could be $ 300 million mistake but we may see some changes before the TOR are adopted
There is a call from Mayor of Langford to stop collecting the sewage taxes.
An update on the leaking sewage pipes which creates additional up front costs that can be avoided if the leaks are fixed.
A notice of motion from Ben Isitt calling for a review of the actual flows; basically seeking clarity on who will pay what but RITE also hopes this will bring clarity to actual flows. We think the actual flows are decreasing over time and will be decreased even further by fixing the leaky pipes.
A notice of motion from Carol Hamilton which has been on each meeting’s agenda for a while now. Each time the motion is deferred. Is this because of past experiences of trying to get a motion onto the agenda and the idea is to keep it on the agenda for the time it is needed?
RITE planners observe that the agenda makes no mention of the significant cost savings and revenue / environmental potential with gasification. This has to change and this technology needs due consideration and some input from actual gasification experts.
Westside Roundtable Events
Two events last week. One on Siting and the other on Resource Recovery. The first event was full and the second nearly full (beautiful Saturday). Both events collected some amazing input from residents. At both events the public’s message was clear that the old plan is not sufficient. People want a better solution and they are willing to help. They seek more technical information.
We will report more on this event later when the notes become available.
Eastside Dialog Events
Two events. One at Cedar Hill Rec Center (Saanich) and the other at Windsor Pavilion (Oak Bay). Both events happened on a beautiful Saturday and had small attendance. Good considering the limited amount of promotion that was feasible given the rush timeline allows. If Saanich and Oak Bay don’t get some strong leadership they are going to lose out on the opportunities that will come to the host community.
We will report more on this event later when the notes become available.
Technical and Community Advisory Committee (TCAC)
The TCAC is meeting was today at noon (May 11, 2015). In the past, this committee did little because they met after the decisions were made just to approve the decisions. This time the meeting was progressive because they are all working towards sewage treatment. Except now it is a debate between the old guard who think secondary treatment / biosolids is good enough and …. a better plan.
General
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.
The tertiary treatment with solids gasification proposal by Pivotal IRM and Biowater Technology discussed above would result in much lower project costs and far less impact on household expenditures!
Victoria Salon - Straight Talk About Sewage
Debate topic:
“Be it resolved that whereas the marine waters off the coast are an ecosystem that naturally absorbs and treats the present deep ocean sewage discharge, there is no need to build additional land-based sewage treatment plants for Greater Victoria”.
Gibson Auditorium Young Building,
Room 216 Camosun College,
Lansdowne Campus
Tuesday, May 12th, 2015
7pm-8:30pm
About RITE
The “R.I.T.E. plan” is more of a concept then a "plan" and it stands for Respectful discussion and process leading to an Innovative and Taxpayer friendly sewage treatment that is Environmentally beneficial.
This update was written jointly by volunteers and may not reflect the opinion of all members of the RITE plan FB group.
