Editor:
How shocking to find out that our $25-million eco-friendly sewer treatment plant uses more than 250,000 litres of hazardous chemicals per year and then discharges the same chemicals into the ocean, about 450 metres from shore, in front of Pebbles beach. Kids swim there. People fish and crab there. I am not impressed.
Worse yet, the sodium hypochlorite, citric acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid and sodium hydroxide chemicals needed for one week’s operation are stored inside the wastewater treatment plant, which is very near my home, smack dab in the centre of town. Some of these chemicals could create lethal chlorine gas if mixed together by accident or in a fire or an earthquake. So, the chemicals can’t go on the ferry but can be stored without the proper buildings right in my back yard? How could the district possibly have a permit to store these chemicals together in a downtown area?
The chemical storage buildings for the wastewater treatment plant will not be built until 2019. The plant is incomplete. Kudos to Coun. Doug Wright for not allowing the chemical building to be deferred even longer in the search to fund the shortfall for West Sechelt sewer connections. Now we hear the sewer plant is also incapable of handling high flows and/or high turbidity and needs further upgrades.
How did the award-winning Design Build process with all the project engineers and management overlook something so basic as chemical storage anyway? Maybe if someone had bothered to look at the Organica plant in France, they would have noticed the need for chemical storage and who knows what else.
I have one more question for the taxpayers of Sechelt. Would you buy a $25-million car without at least going to see one first?
George Goudie, Sechelt
