Colwood has the blessing of the Capital Regional District to try going it alone on sewage treatment. While Colwood has strong arguments for setting up its own system, this shouldn鈥檛 become a precedent for fragmenting the regional sewage system.
Of Colwood鈥檚 5,000 homes, 1,000 are on sewers and the rest use septic tanks, so melding the city into the regional Seaterra sewage treatment system poses problems. Colwood wants to avoid those issues by setting up its own system, which could be expanded as phased developments such as Royal Bay are built out.
Unlike the CRD鈥檚 secondary treatment of sewage, Colwood aims for tertiary treatment, which means the system produces water that can be used, instead of pumped into the ocean. Colwood won鈥檛 be making drinking water, but hopes its product could be put into the ground.
Getting approval from senior governments to put that water into anything other than the ocean could be one of the tougher parts of the project.
The scheme has some advantages for taxpayers in the rest of the region, who wouldn鈥檛 have to pay for a West Shore plant that would have otherwise had to be built about 2030, saving an estimated $5,750 per household.
Colwood taxpayers would have to shoulder the burden. Two-thirds of the CRD鈥檚 system is being funded by the federal and provincial governments. Colwood won鈥檛 get the same deal, so it is giving up 33-cent dollars by going alone.
The CRD鈥檚 approval is just the beginning. Colwood has a lot of work ahead to make its case.
