IMPORTANT NEWS: City Meeting on a New Sewage Treatment Facility

Dear Neighbours,

The City's Liquid Waste Management (LWM) Steering Committee meeting lasted 17 minutes on Wednesday, January 23. Councillors Byng and Rodonets were absent which left Sandi Tremblay (Chair), Bob Astrope, Myrna Leishman, Stan Ghisborne (Regional District), and Eugene Louie (Sliammon). There were so many members of the public who showed up that the LWM Steering Committee decided to move to the large Council Chambers. That was the only decision that was made that day.

The subject of the Joint Advisory Technical/Local Advisory Group decision to locate a new consolidated wastewater treatment faciltiy at the old Waste Transfer Site was not on the agenda and was not brought up by any of the Committee members or City Staff! Instead, we, the public, witnessed more shenanigans from our City Council.

Don McKinnon, City Engineer, addressed the Steering Committee and, with a straight face, told them (and the public) that he had received an ``unsolicited`` letter from the City`s wastewater consultants, Dayton and Knight. I know none of you who have been following this tortured path will be surprised to learn that Dayton and Knight feels ``the best opiton is Townsite, followed by the Mill site`` for a new 10 acre, open ditch wastewater treatment facility.

Dayton and Knight`s specious rationale for advocating for these two sites is ``Both these opitons are located in an industrial site. Each site is near the ocean, which eliminates the critical odour nuisance potential of summer evening air movement from uphill land toward the ocean.`` Clearly, the guy who wrote this is no meterologist. And there is more: ``Visual impact can be addressed by appropriate architectural treatment and landscaping. Noise impact can be mitigated by adequate acoustic design such that noise will not be noticeable at nearby residences.`` I have attached the Dayton and Knight letter to this email for your perusal.

There was much discussion, without substance, about Catalyst`s proposal to co-treat the sewage at the mill. The Councillors stated that they didn`t really know much about this option and decided they really need to talk to Catalyst and find out more about it! Thus, they decided to not make a decision on a site for a new consolidated wastewater treatment facility at the Wednesday meeting.

Had not so many members of the public, largely from the Townsite, been there, the Steering Committee might have just decided to pick Townsite and get on with it. For those of you who did attend, a big 'thank you.' For those of you who weren't able to attend, please know that our City Council has not given up on putting a new sewage facility in the Townsite. Your continued monitoring of this issue is essential.

I submitted a request yesterday, also attached, to the LWM Steering Committee requesting that I, and other members of the Townsite Ratepayers, be allowed to make a presentation at their next meeting -- whenever that is. It`ll be sometime after they have sat down and had coffee with Catalyst, no doubt. I will keep you advised.

It`s hard not to wonder if the recent interest in the Catalyst option isn`t just a red herring and, at the next meeting, we will be told that the Catalyst option isn`t plausible which brings them back to the Townsite -- once again ignoring what the Public Representatives on the Joint Local-Technical Advisory Committee decided upon which is to locate a new sewage facility at the old Waste Transfer Site (Minutes of the Jt. Committee meeting are attached.) Pathetic.

Patricia Aldworth,
President,
Townsite Ratepayers Assn.

NOTE: The following relevant documents pertaining to this issue are available on the Townsite Document Centre:
* Sewage-DandK letter1-08.pdf
* Sewage-Jt.CommMinsNov07.pdf
* ltr-CityLWMPSteering(PDF).pdf