John Newcomb 

11 October 2009 

At this time, the Capital Regional District is actively seeking a site somewhere in the UVic area to put a sewage plant. The CRD-contracted company Westlands has recently completed an environmental and social review (ESR) , but limited the site search to only  Haro Woods, McCoy Field and Cedar Hill Field.  Of the three sites, the report rated Haro Woods as the most suitable – ie, the cheapest – site for a sewage plant. Haro Woods is a small community green-space forest, but will be further fragmented and destroyed by any such industrial land use.  

In rating Haro Woods as the optimal site amongst the three that it has considered, the ESR stated that it did not cover the distribution and use of reclaimed water and recovered energy. 

This is an unfortunate omission in planning for resource recovery. The CRD requested and was given more time by Minister Penner for integrated resource management. Planning for resource recovery should be a key part of sewage plant site evaluation from the start. 

Without the integration of recovered energy and distribution in early site selection, the CRD may be missing some of the most feasible resource recovery processes. In fact,  the possibility of future resource recovery projects may be impaired if the choice of site location is incorrect.

One of the most likely sewage plant resource recovery projects would from sewage effluent heat, but this usually demands that the sewage effluent be piped through a heat-exchanger and then the clean, warm water is piped into the heat-consuming buildings from a distance of no more than about 500 metres from the plant . 

However, Haro Woods was identified as the cheapest site because the raw sewage effluent wouldn’t be pumped up-slope to get to a sewage plant. Nevertheless, if the CRD is serious about planning for sewage plant resource recovery – including effluent heat recovery for UVic buildings - it must still pump  water that has been warmed by the sewage treatment heat exchanger upslope to UVic anyway. 

Siting the sewage plant much nearer to UVic core buildings reduces the distance needed for the warm water to get to those buildings. Also, in order to advance the production of biomethane from the sewage effluent, it would be more efficient to blend-in UVic's 300 tonnes of commercial kitchen scraps produced annually. 

Other UVic-based sites were on non-athletics fields at McCoy Road and Cedar Hill Cross Road. While the ESR has identified operational issues with these two sites, the most critical negative environmental impact will be that a major portion of the field chosen for the sewage plant would have its area reduced for a future campus urban agriculture area – a project that is important for community sustainability. 

Several community commentators have also identified a former composting area as another potential UVic sewage plant site. However, that area could be environmentally restored with native plantings and serve to knit together the fragmented forests of South Woods and Mystic Vale. It would also have some operational issues, including longer distance from heat-consuming UVic buildings, the fire station, and isolation (vandalism and safety). It is especially problematic that almost half of the sewage plant footprint would be dedicated to vehicle access – really just a parking lot for the plant. 

To avoid the waste of important green space, what better place to locate the sewage plant than right in a parking lot? 

For this reason and several others, a sewage plant located somewhere in the MacKinnon Gym parking lot would be a much better site than any of the alternatives suggested so far, as it would appear to rate high on several requirements of a sewage plant site. These would include a greater distance from nearest residences, proximity to main gravity sewage pipes, proximity to large heat-consuming UVic buildings, and of course, its parking lot location means no space wasted on extra vehicle access. This site is also close to UVic Campus Security Building, and to the Saanich #3 fire station at 1900 McKenzie Avenue. 

Currently, UVic planners have dedicated another athletics building for the MacKinnon Gym parking lot site, but if that site is most effective for a resource recovery sewage plant, it should be included in the sewage  site evaluation. Such an important option should not be taken off the table just because there may be competing future uses for the site because the most compelling use for that site is for this sewage plant.

Indeed, no other use for MacKinnon Gym parking lot could be as vital to UVic’s own strategic planning as locating a resource-recovery sewage plant there. UVic should welcome the addition of a publicly-owned and operated resource recovery sewage plant onto its grounds and give a very high priority to persuading the CRD Board that UVic wants this sewage plant – in fact needs this sewage plant to be on university property – to be prominently displayed and promoted as a valuable UVic asset that clearly proclaims UVic commitment to environmental sustainability. 

After all, the University of Victoria now has a total of about 25,000 students and employees, and with a large number of on-campus residences, contributes to sewage effluent volumes in an amount comparable to a small city. The financial arrangements would not be unusual, where UVic leases the land to the CRD for the plant, in return for recovered resources as heat, electricity and water.

UVic prides itself on its sustainability efforts  – a transit hub, LEEDS buildings, water conservation, etc. However, all these are becoming commonplace design elements for any university campus. To distinguish itself as a more truly “green” campus, UVic must further reduce its consumption of resources such as energy, take stewardship of its production of sewage and waste, and must move up to the next step of sustainability with several new policy commitments, such as urban farming on little-used fields - including McCoy and Cedar Hill (“dog-walker field”), protecting its forest green space (Haro Woods, Mystic Vale, etc) and most importantly to welcome this resource recovery sewage treatment plant onto a site that has been previously degraded.  

 

The latest Campus Sustainability Report Card suggests that UVic is on a downward trend in its commitment to creating a green campus. 

UVic's own Sustainability Action Plan specifically notes that resource recovery should be addressed, between 2009-2014 (p8):

Thus, there is an environmental obligation for UVic to accommodate a sewage plant onto its grounds –especially on a parking lot, and to promote the processes which increase the sustainability of this sewage plant. Since we are lacking evidence that additional sewage treatment in the CRD will be of any net environmental benefit to the region,  actions to reduce the negative environmental impact of  this additional sewage treatment become all the more urgent and important – both for the region and for UVic. 

An independent opinion survey was completed in July by UVic graduate student Jamie Biggar , with following results: 

47 votes for McKinnon Gym parking lot, 

34 votes for McCoy field, 

10 votes for none of the above, 

5 votes for Haro Woods, 

3 votes for Cedar Hill Corner field. 

Sewage effluent heat recovery is the most likely resource that can be recovered with existing technology, as energy is expensive and sewage treatment creates greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is vital that the sewage plant be located as centrally as possible to the UVic consumers of its recovered resources.