Salt Spring Island Liquid Waste - Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Septage Receiving Facility and who administers it?
All waste pumped from septic tanks and grease traps and sludge from wastewater treatment plants on Salt Spring is received at a central Capital Regional District (CRD) processing facility off Burgoyne Bay Road. At the facility, about 5 million litres (5,000 tonnes) per year of these materials are dewatered to reduce the cost of transport to the CRD Regional solid waste landfill in Victoria. The facility produces about 600 tonnes of dewatered sludge annually that is trucked to Victoria, and roughly 4 million litres of water that is filtered through membranes and discharged to a septic field. Without the facility, all 5,000 tonnes of liquid waste would need to be trucked off Salt Spring Island.
In 1993, the CRD established the Salt Spring Island Liquid Waste Disposal Local Service Commission (SSILWC), consisting of Salt Spring residents, to oversee the administration of the service. Each year, typically in October or November, the Salt Spring Island Liquid Waste Disposal Local Service Annual General Membership (AGM) meeting is held. Here, staff present an annual operations report for public information, and elections for expiring commission positions are held. The SSILWC has the delegated authority of the Capital Regional District (CRD) Board regarding how the local service is operated, including the annual budgeting.
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 supported by Salt Spring Island electors in a 1993 referendum. Although facilities exist on Vancouver Island for receiving septage and sludge, there are economic and environmental benefits to 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, potentially enabling on island biosolids processing to produce a valuable resource in place of an adverse environmental impact.
How do my taxes support the facility?
There are two distinct funding sources to support the operations and capital upgrades at the facility. An annual parcel tax is levied on all 5,649 properties in the Salt Spring Island Electoral Area to support capital upgrades to the facility, currently at $42.10/parcel. Annual operating costs are funded through a tipping fee of $0.38, per imperial gallon, and charged to septage waste haulers for liquid waste brought to the site for processing.
Why did the tipping fees increase in 2010?
The facility has been operated and maintained for several years by making incremental improvements that optimize and sustain existing processes, minimize safety risks, and maintain the reliability of equipment. The operation also aims to minimize potential impacts on the surrounding area with respect to noise, odour, traffic and dust. Despite these and earlier improvements, the system suffered from diminishing performance and reliability of critical processes and equipment in 2008/09, resulting in two temporary shutdowns of the dewatering process. Hauling the untreated liquid waste to the regional liquid waste processing facility in Langford during these shutdowns created an unbudgeted cost in excess of $30,000.
At the November 17, 2009 SSILWC budget meeting, staff recommended a revenue increase to recover the cumulative operating deficit for the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years, and to accommodate increasing operating costs to keep the existing septage receiving facility operating until planned upgrades are completed. The commission chose to increase the tipping fee from $0.24 to $0.38 per imperial gallon to recover the operating shortfall.
What are the planned capital upgrades?
Essentially, the upgrade will replace what was constructed in 1997 as a pilot facility with a permanent, fully enclosed dewatering facility. The proposed work includes the following major components:
- New receiving station
- New storage tanks
- New dewatering press
- Electrical & control upgrades
- Composting facility
The budget for the upgrade is $2.1 million.
Why is the CRD considering composting at Burgoyne?
It currently costs the taxpayers of Salt Spring $100,000 annually to haul dewatered biosolids to the Hartland landfill on Vancouver Island for disposal and land filling. This will not be a viable option in the long term. 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 regularly available for pickup by the public at "sales" (or giveaways), for use in residential and commercial landscapes. Composting would support the community value of managing waste streams produced on Salt Spring Island (as supported by the Official Community Plan); composting at Burgoyne could benefit all three pillars of sustainable development: economic, environmental and community.
A composting facility at the Burgoyne septage process site would include odour and runoff containment systems and 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 would meet the CRD requirements for in-vessel compost facilities.
It has not yet been concluded that composting is the best long term end use of biosolids from Salt Spring Island. Alternatives will be considered through a triple bottom line business case analysis before proceeding with design and construction of a composting facility.
When will the work be done?
Construction of upgrades tot eh Burgoyne facility is on hold, pending completion of a triple bottom line analysis of alternatives for managing septage and sewage sludge generated on Salt Spring Island. A decision on the future of the Salt Spring Island Liquid Waste Disposal Local Service is expected to be made in summer 2011, following completion of the business case analysis.