Re: Don’t pass the sewage buck (Editorial, May 15)
When the Capital Regional District did its preliminary studies on Hartland Road as a site for a plant to recover methane from sewage and garbage, it anticipated the smell would be “severe to extreme.”
The CRD calculated “nearby properties would lose 25 per cent of their value.”
There are few homes “nearby” Hartland, but Vic West and Saanich along the Gorge are as densely populated as any area in the region.
If a thousand homes lose an average $100,000 each, residents will lose $1 billion in equity, more than the projected cost of the whole regional sewage system.
Victoria, Saanich, and Esquimalt will lose in excess of $5 million in annual property taxes as new assessments come in.
Aside from the serious safety and health concerns around locating a sludge plant in the heart of a residential area, the economic and social impacts need serious consideration now, not after the foundations have been poured on Viewfield Road.
Rob McCarvill
Victoria