The Capital Regional District has told us that the sewage treatment solution will cost at least approximately $1 billion, but what will the cost be of the entire system? The four items listed below could potentially add tens of millions to this cost.

1. The costs of treating the sludge from the sewage treatment plant.

An additional treatment plant will be required to deal with the sludge produced from the sewage treatment process. Additional costs will be needed if the sludge cannot be treated on site.

2. A portion of the sewer and storm drain lines in the municipality of Oak Bay are combined.

The effluent and contaminants from these two systems will be completely different. Will the CRD be responsible to correct this situation in the Uplands or will the Municipality of Oak Bay be responsible to install a two-pipe system; one for storm water and one for sewers?

3. What if a sewage treatment plant is built on a site which does not allow for future expansion and another treatment plant has to be built in the future?

Will the property for the future site(s) be purchased now or will the property be purchased in the future at an inflated price? Will all of the sewage pipes that are in place today be installed in such a manner that we will not be required to do massive changes to this system in the future?

4. The costs of most construction projects is usually 10 to 20 per cent higher than the original estimate.

These additional costs are based on the items missed by the design group and unforeseen problems that can occur.

None of the costs of the items noted above are being shared by the provincial or federal governments. The first item has to be completed before the sewage treatment plant can be running. And the second item may have to be done as well unless the sewage treatment plant is designed to handle all of the contaminants in a storm drain system as well as the contaminants in the sanitary system.

The taxpayer should be shown all of the CRD  alternatives and their costs before the sewage treatment plant is built. Or are we just going to allow the CRD to operate with an open cheque book?

Once this project is started, there will be no stopping it until the project is completed, no matter what the costs.

John Skinner

Colwood