The Viewfield Road site in Esquimalt is the wrong choice for a sludge plant, given its small size as well as close proximity to residences, schools, a grocery store and many other businesses.
And no, I am not happy that my house is a mere 400 metres downwind from the site – more than 200 residences are within 600 metres.
Perhaps the complete treatment facility could be built on the McLaughlin point site if only DND would release some adjacent land for sludge treatment. That is unlikely to happen, as the release of such lands by the federal government would likely be met by an instantaneous land claim from the relevant First Nations.
So why doesn’t the Capital Regional District expropriate a bigger, better site? Why not build these facilities on any golf club in the area, or the south part of Government House property in Victoria, or in Beacon Hill Park, or Uplands Park, or unused land at the University of Victoria, etc. That will not happen of course – the underlying criterion here appears to be ‘no effluent near the affluent.’
I’m sure that none of the councillors on the CRD sewage committee who are pressing for the Viewfield site live anywhere near it. Just whom are they serving?
I hope Esquimalt council does all it can to block the Viewfield site.
Roel Hurkens
Victoria
