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Sewage treatment in Victoria | McLoughlin Point Wastewater Treatment Plant


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Poll: What do you think of the report $1.2 billion Dollar sewage treatment cost. (77 member(s) have cast votes)

What do you think of the report $1.2 billion Dollar sewage treatment cost.

  1. We need it and waited too long that is the cost of waiting too long! (65 votes [23.47%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 23.47%

  2. Local, Provincial, and Federal politicians will find a way to help cut down the price to property owners. (3 votes [1.08%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 1.08%

  3. Out of the question, too expensive for Greater Victoria. (122 votes [44.04%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 44.04%

  4. It expensive, but if we do nothing costs will only rise. (20 votes [7.22%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 7.22%

  5. We need to do it but greatly scale back the project. It has grwon out of hand. (34 votes [12.27%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 12.27%

  6. No opinion, I do not know enough about the project to say of the costs are out of line or not. (33 votes [11.91%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 11.91%

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#21 Nomad

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Posted 25 August 2006 - 01:11 PM

I believe the goal is tertiary(third) treatment. Cloverpoint already provides primary in the form of a 10mm screen under clover point. It prodcues about 2 dump truck loads of screened waste per week. It picks upthings like condoms and chess peices, and maybe corn. I have some pics at home, ill post em later. imagine 1100 litres per second of the smelly stuff flowing through there. Raging torrent would be an understatement.

#22 Mike K.

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Posted 25 August 2006 - 01:12 PM

Oh, I see. So tertiary is the highest level. My bad.

So it looks like the Hydroxyl idea is dead before it can even start the ground.

I'd like to see those pictures, Nomad!! I just hope they're not of condoms, chess pieces and corn flowing through the pipes ;)

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#23 Holden West

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Posted 25 August 2006 - 01:56 PM

Eh, skip it--I think we get the picture!
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#24 renthefinn

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Posted 25 August 2006 - 04:30 PM

Clover point doesn't provide primary treatment, it's just preliminary screening, primary treatment would involve settling of solids out of the sewage.

#25 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 25 August 2006 - 04:39 PM

let's put the waste in rockets and sent it towards the sun. That seems to me to be the cheapest solution. And we can launch those rockets from Nova Scotia:

http://www.digitaljo...?articleID=4888
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#26 Holden West

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Posted 25 August 2006 - 04:56 PM

let's put the waste in rockets and sent it towards the sun. That seems to me to be the cheapest solution. And we can launch those rockets from Nova Scotia:

http://www.digitaljo...?articleID=4888


Nova Scotia already has trained [url=http://images.google.ca/images?q=tbn:9BgBHLu2qYzkPM:http://i14.ebayimg.com/03/i/06/2b/be/dd_2.JPG:817d6]astronauts[/url:817d6]:

That was actually [url=http://www.thespacereview.com/article/437/1:817d6]proposed[/url:817d6] for nuclear waste disposal. But what would happen if the rocket were to suffer a Challenger-like explosion during take off. Looks like we're in for crappy weather...
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#27 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 25 August 2006 - 04:57 PM

That was actually [url=http://www.thespacereview.com/article/437/1:4d13a]proposed[/url:4d13a] for nuclear waste disposal. But what would happen if the rocket were to suffer a Challenger-like explosion during take off. Looks like we're in for crappy weather...


:lol:
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#28 Nomad

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Posted 25 August 2006 - 07:02 PM

Shell Fish Harvesting Closures

According to an article published by seattlepi.com (Aug 18, 1999 By Joel Connelly, National Correspondent):
“Beginning in 1983, however, the fisheries ministry closed down shellfish harvesting in waters near the discharge outfalls in Victoria and Esquimalt. The closure area now totals more than 30 square miles of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.”
This raises the question: If the sewage is treated as quickly and effectively by the environment, as well as the sewage being continually flushed from the straight via currents, then why is such a large area closed to shell fish? Perhaps there is a greater amount of solids settling to the sea floor than is being reported to the appropriate governing bodies

#29 Scaper

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Posted 25 August 2006 - 08:28 PM

^ Glad to see you posting....I don't know if this is the best place to say this...But Welcome!!!

#30 renthefinn

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Posted 25 August 2006 - 09:13 PM

^^I think the amount of solids is well known. Now the effect the sewage is having on these closures is something that is not known. Would there be closures if sewage was treated? We don't know that, perhaps they are caused by the sewage, but we don't know that either. It'll be interesting, now that we're gonna be mandated to get treatment (by the province), to see if there are notable improvements once the treatment is in place.

#31 Mike K.

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Posted 30 August 2006 - 09:11 AM

From toilet to kitchen...

Strange and wonderful things to do with sewage
CAROLYN HEIMAN


The story was intended as light banter — really no more than a joke. The man who shoulders much of the responsibility for ensuring that the Capital Regional District politicians have the information they need to move forward on sewage treatment, recounted visiting a Chinese city where residential toilets had conversion systems resulted in the owner’s house getting a gas supply for their kitchen stove.
Imagine, said Dwayne Kalynchuk, the general manager of environmental services, every Victorian having a fuel connection between their toilet and barbecue.
Imagine indeed. After taking a moment to get over the yuk factor, I recognized that I have my own indoctrinated notions of sewage being something ideally pushed not only from mind, but disposed as far away from source as possible. A toilet-to-kitchen connection seemed too close. But is it really something to be so squeamish about? Perhaps like politicians and regional bureaucrats now forced to deal head on with the topic of sewage, I needed to open my mind to possibilities that might exist beyond putting it in a football field-sized pond in someone else’s neighbourhood.
Those possibilities are endless if you listen to Stephen Salter, a professional engineer involved with Victoria Sewage Alliance, an organization that has been agitating for sewage treatment in the region.
Salter has nearly made a career of looking at alternative methods of treatment. He has binder full of approaches that have been tried in other places, and in October he’s travelling to Kristianstad, Sweden, to check out their sewage innovations. In particular, he’s lobbying for the region to have a design competition that could showcase treatments not contemplated to date. They’re the kind of treatments that would convert sewage into biogas used to fuel buses and cars and heat homes. It’s done in other jurisdictions, so why not in the capital region, Salter suggests.
From California to Switzerland he has found examples of cities that use sewage as a resource, not a waste. These are places that have taken sewage and all of its components — fat, grease, organic material, sludge, minerals, water — to make fuel, fertilizer, water for irrigation and even ash containing metals and minerals that is rerouted to a mine and blended with ore.
Naysayers are quick to dump on Salter’s ideas, saying they are too expensive or impractical for the region. But this may be old-style thinking at work.
Joe Van Belleghem, of Windmill Developments, recently recounted his reaction to a cost estimate to have the Dockside Green residential development have its own in-house sewage treatment.
“My jaw nearly dropped,” said Van Belleghem. Idealism might have been stomped out by economic assumptions if Van Belleghem didn’t continue to challenge the premise the estimates were made on.
He didn’t try to make the sewage treatment cheaper. Instead, he factored in costs he’d save with the system. How much would he save if he didn’t have to connect to the city’s sewage system? Did the estimate take into account that that Dockside Green residents would require less treatment because of the water-saving appliances and devices that would be installed? What about the value of the treated water that will be used for irrigation?
Tallied up, the high cost of in-house treatment not only made sense, Van Belleghem figures its operation will make money.
If all of this sounds a little implausible, just cast back 20 years or so. Did we ever think we’d be wearing cosy jackets made from recycled plastic pop bottles? At some point it would have sounded crazy to suggest that we’d supply 1,600 homes with electricity from garbage at Hartland landfill. We’re told the 2010 Olympic Village will get its heating from its sewage. This year The Economist reported on a San Francisco project to make valuable methane out of dog feces diverted out of the landfill by pet owners. The city figured that pet waste coming from its 120,000 canine residents accounted for four per cent of household refuse. All of these are strange, but true examples. No joking.
Carolyn Heiman writes Wednesday in the Times Colonist. She can be reached at mailto:cheiman@tc.canwest

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#32 Galvanized

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Posted 28 October 2006 - 11:00 AM

BC GOVERNMENT TO FUND SEWAGE TREATMENT

Oct 27, 2006

THE B-C GOVERNMENT WILL FUND ONE-THIRD OF THE COST OF SEWAGE TREATMENT IN THE CAPITAL REGION.

PREMIER GORDON CAMPBELL MADE THE ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE UNION OF B-C MUNICIPALITIES TODAY.

LOCAL NDP MLA MAURINE KARAGIANIS IS CONGRATULATING THE PREMIER ON HIS ANNOUNCEMENT.

KARAGIANIS SAYS HER ONLY CONCERN IS THAT THE PREMIER TALKED ABOUT AFFORDABILITY...AND SHE WORRIES THAT MAY MEAN THE PROVINCE WILL PURSUE THE "CHEAPEST" NOT BEST SEWAGE OPTION.

- rs CFAX 1070


Oct 27, 2006

THE VICE CHAIR OF THE CAPITAL REGIONAL DISTRICT SAYS DESPITE THE PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP STIPULATION ON PROVINCIAL FUNDING FOR LOCAL SEWAGE TREATMENT, THEY ARE JUST HAPPY THE LAST PIECE OF THE PUZZEL IS THERE.

DENISE BLACKWELL SAYS THEY WERE NEVER CONCERNED THAT THE PROVINCE WOULDN'T STEP UP WITH THE FINAL THIRD OF THE FUNDING.

BLACKWELL SAYS THE 'P-3' STIPULATION WILL ENSURE TAX PAYERS IN THE REGION GET THE BEST AND CHEAPEST SEWAGE TREATMENT POSSIBLE.

PREMIER GORDON CAMPBELL COMMITTED THE PROVINCE TO ONE THIRD OF THE FUNDING DURING HIS ADDRESS TO THE UNION OF BC MUNICIPALITIES MEETING IN VICTORIA TODAY.

- NIKKI EWANYSHYN CFAX 1070
Past President of Victoria's Flâneur Union Local 1862

#33 Jeffamartin1970

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Posted 04 December 2006 - 10:16 AM

Waste of money or not, the provincial government has ordered that we have sewage treatment! So were do we put it and what kind of treatment do we have?

#34 Mike K.

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Posted 04 December 2006 - 10:28 AM

I certainly hope it doesn't end up in Esquimalt. Esq's waterfront, which is currently owned by the DND but may be released to private buyers soon, holds far too much potential for the core to be used as a large industrial dump.

Furthermore, I think the location issue could hold up this project for quite a while. The districts considered "more" affluent by some are obvious no-gos as far as their residents and civic leaders are concerned. The obvious solution is then to hark on the districts that are harked on already: i.e. Esquimalt, Vic West, perhaps View Royal and the west comms.

Just watch as our civic leaders slowly start focusing on Esquimalt by toting benefits of its waterfront that apparently are first-class compared to others in the region.

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#35 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 04 December 2006 - 11:24 AM

If we end up building one or even two mega-treatment plants, we will prove to future generations that we're a bunch of backwards-thinking dolts. Instead of a single giant plant that no one wants, we should (IMO) instead build a distributed network of smaller plants, in neighbourhoods across the CRD (so that no one single neighbourhood has to bear the burden of one huge plant). These smaller plants should provide energy for the ...er, suppliers of effluent. In Vancouver, they're calling this [url=http://www.straight.com/article/sexy-energy-project-could-use-raw-sewage:c815c]a neighbourhood energy utility (NEU)[/url:c815c].

There's a Canadian guy, John Todd, who has built scores of "living machines" across the world that clean sewage and provide energy. Here's a link to a Time Magazine page, one of their [url=http://www.time.com/time/reports/environment/heroes/heroesgallery/0,2967,todd,00.html:c815c]Heroes for the Planet[/url:c815c] pages (note: page launch starts a short audio clip). (This page also includes a link to another Canadian, [url=http://www.time.com/time/reports/environment/heroes/heroesgallery/0,2967,ballard,00.html:c815c]Geoffrey Ballard[/url:c815c], whose portrait includes a nice BC Transit bus in the background...!)

At the very least, we should have tax incentives for new developments (especially any P3 or strictly public buildings) to build "living machines" onsite (as per Dockside Green).

The [url=http://www.ottawariverinstitute.ca/WatershedWays04/wwLiving-systems-for-sewage.htm:c815c]Ottawa River Institute[/url:c815c] describes Todd's "Living Machines" as follows:

... solar-powered, accelerated versions of the water treatment facilities found in mature natural systems. They incorporate helpful microbes, plants, snails and fish into diverse, self-organizing and responsive communities and re-route waste streams into resources. They are capable of achieving tertiary treatment standards that meet and often surpass municipal discharge requirements and sludge treatment on-site reduces costs and risks associated with off-site disposal.

Around the world, there are currently hundreds of living machines built by John Todd and others who are following in his footsteps. They range in size from 3,000 to 200,000 gallons per day. Canada has at least two that I know of: the municipality of Bear River Nova Scotia, and the Body Shop in Toronto.


Another link (with descriptions / links to projects): [url=http://www.livingdesignsgroup.com/eng-project-master-list:c815c]Living Systems[/url:c815c].
And: [url=http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/dhm_archive/index.php?display_article=todded:c815c]Sustainability Institute[/url:c815c].

In my opinion, just about anything, really: anything! would be better than to focus on some horrendous "one-size-fits-all" mega-project. I really hope that the CRD and the province and whoever else has a hand in guiding our path to sewage treatment keeps an open mind in regard to smaller, distributed plants.
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#36 aastra

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Posted 04 December 2006 - 01:52 PM

I agree with that. Put a small plant on the Esquimalt waterfront, and swing a deal so that the developers of DND waterfront condo projects foot some of the bill. Do the same thing at Ogden Point. Do the same thing on the west shore.

#37 van-island

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Posted 05 January 2007 - 10:16 PM

For those of you with a little extra land to spare, might I suggest reading [url=http://weblife.org/humanure/:e7d3e]here[/url:e7d3e] and [url=http://transitionculture.org/2006/02/16/reflections-on-six-years-of-relieving-oneself-into-a-bucket/:e7d3e]here.[/url:e7d3e]

#38 G-Man

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Posted 05 January 2007 - 10:33 PM

Those are good ideas but don't translate well into the city environment. My downstairs neighbour might get mad when I try to fertilize the garden from deck :)

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#39 van-island

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Posted 05 January 2007 - 10:40 PM

Those are good ideas but don't translate well into the city environment. My downstairs neighbour might get mad when I try to fertilize the garden from deck :)


No doubt that particularly would be difficult to scale up, but I believe UBC has a building running something similar to a composting system? In any case, it's unfortunate that the only possibility really being considered is the traditional treatment method.

Here we go:

http://www.iar.ubc.ca/choibuilding/matsuzaki.html

#40 gumgum

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Posted 05 January 2007 - 11:25 PM

There are solutions for future condo construction. Just check out dockside.

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