by Murray Dobbin I wonder if people in Powell River know the City of Powell River is still pursuing a sewage co-treatment agreement with Catalyst Paper Corporation Powell River division?
Citizens would be forgiven if they thought this scheme was dead. Every effort council made before the last election to determine public opinion on the deal showed overwhelming opposition. A “world café” consultation showed 95 per cent opposition; 1,200 names of people opposed was submitted to council. The joint local-technical liquid waste management advisory committee voted unanimously (except for the Catalyst representative) against it.
The city’s “phased-in co-treatment/consolidated” plan would first have Catalyst take over sewage treatment from the city and afterwards the city would build its own public plant. Yet if Catalyst treats city sewage, the fecal coliform count would be 14 times higher than the recreational standard and 200 times the standard for shellfish-bearing waters.
Councillors have no control over the timing of the “phases” of their sewage plan. The mill could close at any time and be subject to the decisions of a bankruptcy court whose exclusive mandate would be to divvy up assets for Catalyst’s creditors. The risk factor for Catalyst closing, initially included in estimates for co-treatment, has been mysteriously removed. But it has not gone away.
Catalyst’s financial situation dramatically worsened after council first considered co-treatment. If Catalyst closes we would have no way to treat our waste without an expensive $8-million refit of the mill’s treatment facility—assuming that a bankruptcy court would even let the city have it. Or a public plant could have to be built for about $16 million. This situation could arise when there are no infrastructure grants available for Powell River, and the money would have to come directly out of local taxpayers’ pockets.
In the meantime, raw sewage could be pumped into Malaspina Strait for two years or more until a new facility was completed. There is also the problem of “stranded assets”—the $1,741,000 capital cost of connecting the city’s pre-treatment plant to the mill. This co-treatment expense would be useless when the city built its own plant.
Once Catalyst began treating our wastewater, we would lose control over the costs. What if Catalyst demands an increase in its annual treatment fee beyond $500,000 per year? This is exactly what happened to the municipality of Sooke when the private contractor operating its sewage system demanded a huge fee increase. With our system dismantled we would have little bargaining power.
One of the conditions the last council placed on going ahead with co-treatment was that they would pay its $7-million cost with a grant from the Union of BC Municipalities. They were turned down flat for that grant because their co-treatment scheme lacked “technical merit.” Yet mayor Dave Formosa and councillors Debbie Dee, Maggie Hathaway, Jim Palm and Chris McNaughton have acted as if these absolute rejections by both outside funders and local residents never happened.
At 2 pm on Monday, March 17, in the Elm Room at Powell River Recreation Complex, council is holding a public meeting on the budget for co-treatment. Perhaps councillors pushing for it are hoping no one will notice.
Murray Dobbin is with the group Powell River Water Watch.
