How unfortunate that in looking back on his time as mayor [Outgoing Powell River mayor prepares for next chapter, October 24,], Dave Formosa chose to claim that if the City of Powell River had handed over sewage treatment to the mill as he had wanted, the millions spent on building our own treatment plant could have been saved.
The city was always going to have to build its own plant. It is not good now to sow division in our community by suggesting that if not for the opposition of “environmentalists,” co-treatment could have worked.
The engineering firm hired to look into the feasibility of having the mill treat city sewage told council repeatedly that co-treatment with the mill was “viable as a temporary solution during relatively lengthy but not permanent mill shutdown.”
The mill’s treatment plant was not a “long-term solution due to the high energy demand.”
These statements are easily accessed on the city’s website. People should read them for themselves to put this issue to bed once and for all.
For co-treatment to work even temporarily, the city would have had to build its own pre-treatment plant and new sewer lines to connect to the mill – investments that would have had to be written off once the mill closed – so co-treatment was not a “costless” proposal.
It is also important to remember that Powell River is not paying $100 million for the treatment plant. We received $56 million from senior governments, which would have been 73 per cent of the cost of the project, if there had not been cost overruns.
At the time the city got the grants, mayor Formosa said the new sewage treatment plant was “a legacy that all the previous councils can be proud of ["City of Powell River receives nearly $56 million in funding for wastewater treatment,” August 27, 2019].”
It would have been good if he had stuck with that sentiment.
Ellen Gould
Michigan Avenue
