Victoria, BC Wastewater Treatment Plant Now Operational

[AJZimm]

My city (Victoria, British Columbia) and local region have been publicly excoriated, including on this forum, for dumping mostly-untreated sewage in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. And rightly so – it was an international disgrace.

Finally, the much delayed and ridiculously expensive wastewater treatment plant is now on line and operational.


Here is the story on our local TV news channel.

‘Bout time.

[Hugh MacD]

Good to hear! Sounds like several steps in the right direction.

[BBSebens]

Its about time. I'm sure its a nice facility, and worth being proud of, but right on the entrance to the harbor, across from the cruise ship terminal seems an odd choice of location.

[cstevens]

Congratulations Alex and all residents of Victoria! Looks like a nice facility. And Ben, I'm not sure where else you would put it? The treated water has to go somewhere and I imagine that the entrance to the harbor is the best place for it to go so it will be carried out with the tide, no? The Seattle treatment plant is similarly located.

[AJZimm]

Its about time. I'm sure its a nice facility, and worth being proud of, but right on the entrance to the harbor, across from the cruise ship terminal seems an odd choice of location.

Ben, this project has a long, complex and controversial history, which I will not go into here. However, that location is a result of flawed business case studies, geography, nimbyism, and economics.

The original business case studies that recommended this single plant approach, essentially 19th century technology, ignored the successful example of a large residential/commercial development in the city that has its own sewage treatment plant, and which has been operating successfully for about a dozen years. Its plant is so innocuous and inoffensive that there is a bakery and café located on top of it. Had that approach been followed, there could have been a bunch of small plants located around the city at logical collector pipe nodes. It likely would have been cheaper. Future expansion would also have been easier.

The single plant solution also meant that it had to be not too far from existing outfalls in order to reduce pumping costs. As it was, this location meant that a transfer pipeline had to be built from the existing main outfall at Clover Point, about 2 ¼ miles along the waterfront and under the entrance to the harbour to the plant.

The decision to build a single large plant meant that no one wanted it in their neighbourhood. The land that it is on was Department of National Defence land, and since the federal government were co-funders, they were persuaded to cough up the land for the site. So the plant is not immediately beside any housing.

But, the plant is now built and operating to clean up the wastewater, which is the main thing.