CRD Plans for the OBPP

OBPP - One Big Poop Plant.

The CRD has decided that they will place the one and only sewage treatment plant at McLoughlin Point.  I know the decision getting to this point has taken ages and if we are going to do this, we should move on it, but it is bizarre that the decision that was taken happened so suddenly.  I can understand why Esquimalt is underwhelmed by the decision.

I do not have enough information to know if this is the best location for the sewage treatment plant and I am not going to get into that at this time, though in all honesty I should address this issue at some point.  What I want to address is the horrible process the CRD has used to consult on this project.

We are many years into the planning on this process, we have seen or heard some many different options that at best only a tiny handful of people in this region has any idea what is going on or what it will really cost us.   The process has defacto shut the community at large out of comment about the project.   There has been no meaningful way for the public to have input into this project.

To be clear, we have no idea what sewage treatment will cost because we have are still not certain what is involved yet with the plant being built at the latest location.   All cost estimates are still so early in the process that we are not in the ballpark, we are likely only certain of the sport that the ballpark is part of.

I never noticed any real attempt by the CRD to engage us in what could be possible.

What would have happened if you held  a weekend public forum/workshop about the gamut of options and possibilities for sewage treatment.   You could have people and companies present what they think the way forward is.  You could ask university students to come up with ideas.   There are innovative approaches out there, companies with radical different approaches to what to do with sewage.  Instead we have done none of this.

We have muddled through looking at this with a 1950s governance lens and traditional insular planning process.   What more can I say other than it all depresses me.