Editor:
The Feb. 24 Sechelt planning and community development committee meeting considered whether to allow the new SSC development to hook up to the current sewer system.
At the meeting, Sechelt planner Angela Letman recommended that SSC be included in the Urban Containment Boundary and so be allowed to hook up to the sewer system. Angela said it made no sense, for environmental reasons, to have an outfall in Sechelt Inlet, which in this area has poor tidal flushing. She noted there is sufficient capacity at the Water Resource Centre to service the development and pointed out the alternative is for SSC to build its own on-site treatment plant. She also noted that this plant would not be capable of producing as high a quality effluent as the Water Resource Centre. Incidentally, at this meeting, the SSC development was given a score of 73 out of 74 by the Whistler Centre for Sustainability, a consulting group retained by Sechelt council to assess the SSC development plans.
Sechelt’s planning committee is made up of councillors Darnelda Siegers, Mike Shanks and Alice Lutes. Coun. Siegers voted to allow the SSC development to hook up to the sewer system. Councillors Shanks and Lutes voted against it.
Sechelt council votes on this issue at their March 16 meeting. The board of the EPBCA believes that a package sewer plant with an outfall into Sechelt Inlet makes neither environmental nor economic sense. If you are in agreement please contact your mayor and council at: [email protected].
Peter Wooding, president, East Porpoise Bay Community Association, on behalf of the directors
