I’ve read the report that Saanich Coun. Judy Brownoff quotes in her letter. The effects of our effluent are minute and confined to the area immediately around the outfall diffusers. Beyond that the vast Strait of Juan de Fuca is fine.
Brownoff and other CRD directors are proposing a billion dollar sledgehammer to kill a fly.
The construction of the proposed system will require a good amount of pipeline to be laid underground through Beacon Hill Park and James Bay, under the harbour and underground all the way out to Hartland in Saanich. The construction alone will add a lot of greenhouse gases to the planetary eco-system.
The proposed system will require constant power to pump effluent uphill from the collection point. Another minus, if the intent is to minimize our regional environmental footprint.
We just experienced a notable earthquake. The consequences of a pipeline break under the Inner Harbour or along the 18 kilometre route to the Hartland Landfill due to a natural disaster would be catastrophic.
The proposed system will bury the concentrated sludge near the Hartland Landfill. That’s not treating sewage, that’s simply hiding it. While we are cleaning up one contaminated site at Rock Bay we are promptly creating another one in Saanich.
The cure being proposed for a problem that has yet to materialize in a meaningful way is worse than the problem.
The vast amounts of our money that Brownoff and some of her co-directors are prepared to waste would be better spent on other environmental projects that truly mattered.
Mike Laplante
Saanich
