Editor:
I attended every sewage meeting and most of the sewage commission meetings from the time the biosolids plant was first proposed. The sewer proposal by the previous council was to have the biosolids plant built at the Dusty Road location but, contrary to some information being stated in the community, the sewer plant was to remain in its present state at the Ebbtide location for at least 10 years.
This plan did not satisfy the majority of those who attended the meetings and who were fed up with the stink. There was a consensus at these meetings that regardless of where the new plant was located, it needed to be able to treat effluent to the highest standards and to fulfil Sechelt's sustainability action plan to: "become a zero-waste community and to treat effluent to the highest standards and reduce noise/smell to the greatest extent possible."
Allegations that the sewage technology planned by the District is untried is untrue. Five-sixths of the plant technology is the same as that used in all the other plants in North America. The remaining one-sixth, the greenhouse component, will be a first for North America but there are 35 systems operating successfully in Europe and Asia. This is hardly untried.
The greenhouse component is key to producing the high quality effluent that can be reused for irrigation, parks and industrial purposes. The production of high rather than medium quality effluent adds $5M to the cost of the project but it avoids a $3M to $4M expansion of the ocean outfall that would be necessary in the future if the treatment were of lower quality.
Greg Deacon, Sechelt
