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Treatment plant turned on, wastewater to come

SECHELT
Wastewater plant opening
Pictured from left to right; Aaron Joe from Salish Soils, West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP John Weston, Sechelt Mayor John Henderson and president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Brad Woodside each turn a lever to officially start the plant at the official opening ceremony on Oct. 16.

The facility’s been turned on and the water’s flowing, but sewage won’t come into Sechelt’s new wastewater treatment plant until likely December.

The new plant, dubbed Sechelt Water Resource Centre, was turned on for the first time last Thursday, Oct. 16 during an official opening ceremony that saw a large crowd of supporters and a small group of opponents show up.

Mayor John Henderson thanked all for coming, noting it was a “great, great day.”

“About three years ago several of us said we wanted to get involved in helping make Sechelt even better and this today is a testament to what we’ve been able to achieve,” Henderson said. “In two and a half years we’ve gone from an idea and well, look what we’ve got.” 

He said the new treatment plant will exceed the highest federal and provincial treatment standards, will be noiseless, odourless and green and will use 48 per cent less energy than the District’s existing treatment plant.

The dewatered solids will be taken to Salish Soils for composting at the end of the process and the District is currently in discussions with the Sechelt Golf and Country Club to use the treated waste water for irrigation on site.

The new facility will also use plants in the treatment process, which will be housed in a large green house, although the plants have not been installed yet.

Project coordinator Paul Nash said the plants won’t likely be put in until late December, after a month-long clean water testing period. The first sewage should be introduced into the treatment plant in early December.

“The Ebbtide plant will be shut down permanently a week or two after that, so mid December,” Nash said. “Once the treatment process is stable then the plants go into the greenhouse.”

President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Brad Woodside, was at the opening ceremony, saying the $24.9 million treatment plant project was something worth holding up as a model to other communities.

“I will be talking about Sechelt and this water resource centre right across the country as a great example because you know when it comes to innovation, when it comes to out-of-the-box thinking, you’ve got it,” he said.

West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP John Weston also pointed to the facility as a green model that others should follow.

“It’s this type of project that the government of Canada wants to encourage everywhere,” he said. “So I congratulate you. I know that there were differences of opinion that led ultimately to the conclusion here and I trust that the community has come together, it’s unified and it sees a real great future in this and in other projects.”

Henderson said council has some “other plans and some exciting announcements that are going to come in the next several weeks of how we’re going to do things even better,” before he invited guests to witness the plant being turned on.

Henderson, Weston, Woodside and Aaron Joe of Salish Soils, each turned a lever to officially start the plant, while onlookers cheered.