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Regional sewage committee asked to take Rock Bay-Colwood option

Staff will recommend two-plant option at Wednesday's meeting of the CRD's core area liquid waste management committee

Capital Regional District staff are recommending that the core area liquid waste management committee accept a centralized plant at Rock Bay for sewage treatment, with provision for a smaller one in Colwood.

The committee is scheduled to discuss treatment options at its meeting Wednesday (Feb. 24) in Victoria and may come to a decision, although more time has been scheduled for Friday in case more time is needed to deliberate.

A Rock Bay plant figures in each of the seven options put forward by the CRD in its public consultation phase, the online portion of which ended Feb. 20. Staff indicate the B.C. Hydro/Transport Canada lands off Government and Store streets as the preferred location for the main plant, which would do secondary treatment but house no biosolids processing facility. Hartland landfill is indicated as the preferred site to deal with biosolids.

Under the recommendation the Colwood plant, identified as modular – or expandable – would be located at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Island Highway, a site previously identified by the City of Colwood when it undertook research into going it alone on sewage treatment.

The report states that such a plant would provide tertiary, or higher level, treatment for Colwood and would be “phased in dependent upon budget and final cost considerations determined in consultation with Colwood.”

The solids-energy recovery could be centralized at either Rock Bay or Hartland landfill, with truck traffic estimated to be about five trucks a day in 2030.

The two-plant options carries a total cost of $1.088 billion, with an annual operating budget of $22.8 million estimated for 2030. The option also includes estimated resource income of $2.4 million. It is ranked second for carbon footprint and low operating cost.