Dear editor,
Further to the debate concerning the new pump station:
After spending a decade or two musing about the sewage affairs of the Victoria area, I thought, how can a modern city get away with this? Discharging raw sewage directly into the ocean, and a particular pretty ocean and surrounding area at that, all more or less because of the population and it’s leadership’s inability to settle on a site due to NIMBYism?
Must be a one-of-a-kind-type of community!
Well would you take a look around this Valley. Where to put pump station #2?
All of the suggested solutions are indeed band-aid solutions all the way around to myriad different problems and scenarios.
As far as I can see, all of this rooted in our communities not wanting or seeking a long term sustainable solution, due to an unwillingness to “pay the piper.” We can throw money at the band-aid solutions, then run a high risk of complete system failure from a broken pipe, or direct our funds towards the real solution, which is an overland route.
We must ‘Pay the Piper.’
The questions are only how much, and when?
The sewage we create is our responsibility, and we must find the solution for these problems.
So are the disagreements around pump station #2 just based on NIMBYism?
No, not at all, this is a series of really bad decisions by our communities and their leaders.
Kris Nielsen
Comox