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Salt Spring Island Liquid Waste Disposal Local Service Commission

November 15, 2008 Referendum to Borrow Funds for Proposed Upgrade

At the request of the Salt Spring Island Liquid Waste Disposal Local Service Commission (SSILWC), the Capital Regional District (CRD) board has approved a referendum of the electors of Salt Spring Island to borrow up to $2.1 million for a major upgrade to the septage and sludge processing facility near Burgoyne Bay. Concurrently with the local government elections on November 15, 2008, a referendum ballot will be presented to eligible voters on Salt Spring Island to enact Bylaw 3564, authorizing the CRD to borrow the funds required to upgrade the Burgoyne facility over the next three years.

What does the Burgoyne facility do?

The Burgoyne biosolids processing facility receives septage that is pumped out of septic tanks on Salt Spring Island, and sludge produced in the wastewater treatment plants at Ganges and Maliview. In total, roughly 4 million litres of these materials are processed annually through screening, dewatering using a rotary press and membrane water treatment. The process yields about 600 tonnes per year of dewatered biosolids, about 3.5 million litres of membrane treated water, and a small quantity of screenings. Currently, treated water is discharged to a large septic field at the site and all other materials are trucked to the CRD Hartland landfill near Victoria. A pilot composting project is under construction at Burgoyne to determine the feasibility of further processing the dewatered biosolids to produce a compost product suitable for limited land application on Salt Spring.

Why process septage and sludge on Salt Spring?

Through the Official Community Plan, Salt Spring Island residents, businesses and land owners have expressed a preference to manage septage and sludge on the island. This public preference also expressed in the bylaw to establish the CRD Salt Spring Island Liquid Waste Disposal Local Service, which was passed by the electors in a 1993 referendum. Although facilities exist in Greater Victoria for receiving septage and sludge, there are significant economic and environmental benefits of processing the materials on Salt Spring. With increasing energy costs and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels, both the economic and environmental benefits of an on-island facility have significantly increased in recent years. At the same time, regulatory standards and technologies for sludge and septage processing and use have significantly improved, enabling on-island biosolids processing to produce a valuable resource in place of an adverse environmental impact.

Why is the facility located at Burgoyne?

When the CRD Salt Spring Island Liquid Waste Disposal Local Service was established in 1993, the CRD assumed responsibility for an existing septage receiving facility on leased land at the Burgoyne site that was previously operated by a private contractor. This facility consisted of two lagoons (excavated pits), into which septage was deposited and leached into the ground. Although at the time this was an acceptable and cost-effective practice where suitable site conditions existed, the lagoons at Burgoyne had insufficient capacity for the volume being received by the mid 1990’s. In 1996, the CRD was trucking about 20,000 litres per week of raw septage and sludge to Victoria for disposal, a prohibitively expensive practice that was not consistent with the mandate of the local service.

In 1997, the CRD invited proposals to construct a dewatering facility to replace the Burgoyne lagoons. The successful proponent, Canadian Wastewater Corporation (CWC), constructed a pilot facility including a dewatering press in a portable enclosure, a membrane process to produce effluent suitable for ground discharge, rudimentary headworks and salvaged storage tanks. The one-year pilot was successful, and CWC was retained to continue to own and operate the facility through 2002.

In 2003, the owner of the Burgoyne site decided to sell the land. The CRD negotiated to purchase the site, and concurrently purchased the dewatering facility from CWC. Since that time, the facility has been operated by CRD staff. As the facility has evolved over 15 years of CRD oversight, the Burgoyne location has proven to be suitable location, allowing considerable separation from residential neighbourhoods, reasonable accessibility for haulers and sufficient room for expansion.

Why are major upgrades required?

The Salt Spring Island Liquid Waste commission, with members representing Maliview sewer system, Ganges sewer system and greater Salt Spring Island, has managed, through short term borrowing and annual reserve fund contributions, to purchase the site and to maintain and make small improvements to the facility, which is functionally unchanged from the original CWC pilot plant. While this strategy has allowed the facility to continue operation, it was clear to the commission that it was time to upgrade and expand the facility. Specifically, the major upgrade is required because:

• The headworks, or receiving station, is a manpower intensive operation, does not remove sufficient grit from the waste stream, provides no means to wash organics from the grit and is unable to accommodate waste from restaurant grease traps.
• Volumes of sludge and septage received have continued to increase annually, to the extent that the dewatering press that forms the backbone of the process runs at maximum capacity for several months of the year. A simple mechanical breakdown or plugged line results in extensive backlog in dewatering with increased operating costs.
• The tall, narrow storage tanks are unmixed, and segregation of materials in storage causes operating problems with the press and inconsistent product quality.

• The dewatering press, which is modular, cannot be expanded or replaced with a larger unit unless relocated to a new enclosure. The electrical service to the entire facility is also undersized for the additional capacity needed.
• Much of the process equipment is outdoors, shortening its useful life and posing challenges in terms of runoff and odour control.

As volume has increased and components have aged, operating the facility has become labour-intensive and unrewarding for the operator, at a time when recruiting and retaining qualified environmental operators is challenging in general.

Although most of the proposed upgrades to the facility address these needs for improvements to the dewatering operation, the upgrade project also includes a permanent composting facility that would be built only if the pilot operation proves successful over the next two years. Composting is being investigated to eliminate one of the most costly functions of operation, disposal of dewatered solids to the Hartland landfill near Victoria and instead produce a locally marketable garden soil amendment. If successful, composting will reduce the cost of the liquid waste service relative to hauling dewatered solids to Victoria, benefit the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from hauling, and benefit the community by recycling waste as a productive resource.

What will the $2.1 million upgrade achieve?

Essentially, the proposed upgrade will replace what was constructed in 1997 as a pilot facility with a permanent, fully enclosed dewatering facility. If a composting pilot is successful in the next two years, the upgrade will also include a permanent, fully enclosed composting facility. The proposed work includes the following major components:

Proposed Work	Estimated Cost
Construct permanent process building, roughly 200m2 with integral spill containment and odour control systems	$300,000
Procure and install new receiving station, including aerated grit channel, auger screen, grit and screenings washing, card reader and magnetic flow meter for automated billing	$350,000
Upgrade storage tanks to include mixing	$200,000
Refurbish and relocate existing dewatering press, and procure and install additional press	$250,000
Procure and install new membrane system for treatment of separated water	$160,000
Upgrade electrical service to site	$50,000
Construct permanent composting facility	$300,000
Engineering, project management, regulatory approvals and contingency (30% of bare construction cost)	$490,000
Total Estimated Cost	$2,100,000

When the dewatering upgrade (all work except the permanent composting facility) is completed, the entire dewatering and water treatment process will be enclosed in a new building that will contain noise, odours and runoff from processing operations. Along one side of the building will be a truck bay where haulers discharge loads into the facility through a card-lock system similar to those used in commercial fuelling facilities. Dewatered biosolids will be conveyed to bins in the building for composting or transportation. Although some of the existing tanks will be retained, most of the existing process equipment will be hauled offsite for recycling. The completed facility will efficiently and cost-effectively dewater current and projected quantities of sludge, septage and grease trap waste in full compliance with BC regulations.

The permanent composting facility, proposed for year 3 of the program, would comprise an extension of the process building, including odour and runoff containment systems, to enclose composting bins, mixing and handling equipment. The facility would produce a compost product suitable for a wide range of uses under the BC Organic Matter Recycling Regulation, fulfilling the original mandate of the Salt Spring Island liquid waste local service. The operation will meet the CRD requirements for in vessel compost facilities.

Will this project require an increase in taxes or fees?

No increase in taxes in fees is expected to be necessary to finance this project. Although the CRD will need to borrow up to $2.1 million to complete the work, the entire cost of servicing a 15-year loan under the Municipal Finance Authority can be accommodated at existing (Fall 2008) tax and fee levels for the Salt Spring Island liquid waste local service. The parcel tax rate of $42.11 is projected to remain unchanged for at least the next five years, and the tipping fee of $0.24 per UK gallon ($0.053/litre) is projected to increase only as required to offset price inflation in operating expenses (typically projected at 2% per year). A revenue increase is not needed to finance this project because loans that were used to finance previous upgrades are coming to term in the next three years, making revenue available in the operating budget to service the new debt.

When will the work be done?

The dewatering upgrade will be completed over a period of about two years between 2009 and early 2011. Subject to successful pilot operation, it is anticipated that the permanent composting facility would be completed in 2011.

What impacts will the project have on neighbours to the facility?

Since the Burgoyne facility is located several hundred metres through forest from its nearest neighbours, the impacts of both construction and operation of the upgraded facility on neighbours are expected to be negligible. Although construction vehicles will travel to and from the site regularly via Burgoyne Bay Road during the project, the increase in traffic over day-to-day operations is not expected to be significant. The construction will not require potentially disruptive work such as blasting, pile driving or significant excavation.

In operation, impacts on neighbours are expected to be reduced as the process will be fully enclosed. The composting pilot will enable the CRD to evaluate the potential for odour concerns before a permanent facility is constructed and to adjust plans as required to ensure adequate controls are achieved. Although composting will introduce new vehicle traffic for hauling wood waste in as an amendment and completed compost out, this traffic will be offset by eliminating the transport of dewatered biosolids from the site to the Fulford ferry terminal.

Why is the CRD moving toward composting at Burgoyne?

It currently costs the taxpayers of Salt Spring $100,000 annually to haul dewatered biosolids to the Hartland Landfill in Greater Victoria for disposal. The lifecycle cost of a facility to produce a valuable compost product at Burgoyne Bay is significantly lower, even before the value of the product and the reduced greenhouse gas emissions from hauling are taken into account. In other jurisdictions where treated biosolids are produced from sewage and/or septage (including lime-stabilized biosolids from the CRD Saanich Peninsula Wastewater Treatment Plant), the material is made available for pickup by the public regularly at "sales" (or giveaways) for use in residential and commercial landscapes. The material typically sells out within a few days. Considering also that composting supports the community value of managing waste streams produced on Salt Spring on the island (as supported by the Official Community Plan), composting at Burgoyne benefits all three pillars of sustainable development: Economy, environment and community.

How safe is the compost produced from biosolids?

The application of biosolids from sewage or septage to land for enhancing plant growth has a long history throughout the world, with few known problems and still fewer that are not easily managed. A broad technical treatise on the land application of treated biosolids was recently submitted to the United States Court of Appeals as Amicus Curiae by the Water Environment Federation (WEF), in response to litigation in California. The WEF Amicus Brief concludes that, "biosolids recycling is sound practice," and, "there is no evidence in properly conducted scientific studies that land application…in accordance with industry best practices poses any danger to public health or the environment." The treatment and reuse of biosolids in BC is governed under the Organic Matter Recycling Regulation, which embodies North American best practices for biosolids recycling.

The CRD will apply a multi-barrier approach to minimize potential adverse health and environmental risks associated with end use of composted biosolids on Salt Spring, which will draw upon its related experience with lime-stabilized biosolids from its Saanich Peninsula Wastewater Treatment Plant. Elements of this risk reduction strategy are already in place, and can be expanded as needed:

• The sources of virtually all the biosolids on Salt Spring are residential and light commercial, which by their nature produce biosolids with very low levels of contaminants of concern such as metals and industrial chemicals that are often present in biosolids from larger urban areas. The CRD regional source control program monitors discharges from commercial facilities in sewered areas on Salt Spring, and provides education and outreach to all CRD residents aimed at minimizing discharges of unwanted substances to drains.
• Both wastewater and biosolids on Salt Spring are sampled and analyzed regularly for a wide range of potential contaminants, further reducing the risk of deleterious impacts of use of composted biosolids.
• The composting process involves blending and storage of biosolids material over several weeks, minimizing the risk of a significant contamination event escaping detection.
• The CRD will provide information to users of the compost product on safe handling and use. Applying composted biosolids to food crops will not be recommended at least until composting on Salt Spring is well established and its safety has been thoroughly tested.

Composted biosolids are used for a wide variety of beneficial purposes without discernable adverse health or environmental impacts. The multi-barrier approach employed in the CRD will effectively manage the small risks associated with biosolids recycling.

What if the referendum fails?

The CRD needs to proceed with major upgrades to the Burgoyne facility within the next three years in order to keep it in operation and fulfill the mandate of the Salt Spring Island Liquid Waste Disposal Local Service. Should the referendum fail, the Liquid Waste Disposal Local Service Commission will be faced with a decision whether to proceed with the upgrades on a cash basis by temporarily raising the parcel tax by about $140 for three years, or to direct the CRD to begin hauling raw liquid waste to Greater Victoria for processing and discontinue the local service altogether (resulting in much higher sludge and septage disposal costs for sewage treatment plants and septic system owners).