CRD should correct sewage classification

Re: “Get moving on sewage project,” editorial, Nov. 6.

To state that the federal government has ordered municipalities to stop discharging raw sewage into waterways is inaccurate.

The federal guidelines for implementation of the wastewater regulations emphasize the need to consider the ability of a receiving environment to assimilate sewage discharge.

This ability to assimilate enables less treatment to be done on land prior to the discharge, thereby possibly reducing the amount of infrastructure needed for treatment, which in turn reduces the environmental degradation caused by the construction and operation of the infrastructure.

The guidelines emphasize that a costbenefit analysis be done to identify these potential savings. Engineers, marine scientists and public health officers are confident that such savings could be significant, but, as David Anderson stated in his recent op-ed, the Capital Regional District has consistently refused to do such an analysis.

The CRD is also remiss in refusing to apply to federal regulators for correction of the “high-risk” classification of Victoria’s current treatment system because our system perfectly fits the regulator’s own definition of a low-risk system, which has an upgrade deadline of 2040.

That correction is what the CRD should be getting a move on for. Brian Burchill Chairman Association for Responsible and Environmentally Sustainable Sewage Treatment