My name is Dr. Gerald Graham.
Regarding Dr. Andrew Weaver’s support the other day for a distributed tertiary sewage treatment model within the CRD, I’ve looked at the figures, and they don’t add up!
It would take at least 285 Dockside Greens to meet the region’s daily sewage needs.
The plan Dr. Weaver appears to favour envisages 15 tertiary treatment plants spread around the region, many of them piggybacking on existing pumping stations such as the one on Currie Rd in Oak Bay, next to Windsor Park.
The current capacity for the Currie Rd pumping station is 35 times the maximum daily capacity of Dockside Green. Thus, how realistic would it be to fit so large a treatment plant on the Oak Bay site, even if it does go underground, as the proponents suggest?
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that 15 Dockside Green-size treatment plants could be spread across the region, as the proponents suggest, and that fifteen local neighbourhoods would sign on to this plan. Collectively, these plants would only meet 5% of the region’s daily sewage treatment needs, which begs the question: where is the other 95% of the sewage we generate each and every day going to be treated?
It’s great to see Dr. Weaver on side with respect to the need to treat our sewage. But please, let’s be realistic when it comes to our options. Above all, let’s make sure decision-making is fact-based.
Thank you!