Cash flows: senior governments commit Monday to $782-million sewer upgrade

By Cindy E. Harnett, timescolonist.comJuly 15, 2012
Infrastructure funding for the capital region's secondary sewage treatment plant is expected to be announced by the federal and provincial governments Monday.  The promised one-third federal funding for the $782-million capital cost of the project has been anticipated almost weekly by the Capital Regional District for more than a year. The province had said it was waiting on the federal government to deliver its funding toward the tripartite agreement before it committed its cash. Conservative B.C. MP James Moore will make an infrastructure announcement on the outdoor terrace of the Inn at Laurel Point, in Victoria, at 11 a.m. Monday. Oak Bay Liberal MLA Ida Chong will announce the province's funding at the same time. Langford Coun. Denise Blackwell, chair of the CRD's liquid waste management committee, will also be in attendance at the announcement. The participating municipalities in the CRD are also on the hook for one-third of the funding plus operating costs of $14.5 million and any land acquisition costs. The estimated property tax burden for homeowners is to range from $100 to $500 a year. The approved treatment plan calls for a liquids-only treatment plant at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt. There, the liquid would be extracted and the sludge left over would be piped 18 kilometres to a biosolids digestion facility at Hartland landfill in neighbouring Saanich. Underground storage tanks would be built at Cadboro Bay. Currently, sewage is sieved through a six-millimetre metal screen before it is piped about a kilometre into the ocean. (more)