» Sewage Treatment Thinking Outside the Pipe
Victoria has been ordered by higher levels of government to implement secondary sewage treatment. The regional committee in charge of selecting a solution limitted the terms of reference to plants that work with existing sewage pipes. I believe this is an attempt to constrain the scope of the already massive project. It’s a problem because the existing pipes allow rainwater to leak in, so there will be very high max flows.
All the plans under consideration call for building multiple treatment plants. Some recent discussion has cheated on the terms of reference by pointing out that if the plants are built one at a time, some of the leaky pipes may have been replaced by the time the later plants are built.
But maybe that’s being nowhere near radical enough? Stewart pointed me to this article about sewage systems that separate urine and feces, leading to far more efficient treatment. We don’t just need to patch up our pipes, we need to replace them with pairs.
The Dockside Green development has its own little sewage treatment plant, so they won’t pay the property taxes to cover Victoria’s system. Maybe we need sewage metres like we have for electricity? If properties are charged based on their sewage production, that’ll be an incentive for things like low-flow and composting toilets. Reducing the load on the sewage system will mean the future plants won’t need to be built at all, like how BC Hydro is increasing capacity through conservation rather than just building more dams.
Aren’t Victorians charged for their water and sewer use by the city based on how much water they use? Presumably water in ~= water out
Don
24 Jun 09 at 10:33 am
Oh wow yeah, good call Don: instead of increasing property taxes to cover new sewage treatment facilities, the city should raise the revenue by increasing water rates. I might just write a letter to the committee about that!
Jared
24 Jun 09 at 10:59 am
I believe that most existing houses in Grater Victoria do not have water meters and that most just pay a set fee for water and sewage. New houses need to have water meters installed.
In the summer the water used deviates from the sewage created due to using sprinklers. There is a lot of water wasted in watering grass and gardens in the summer, the reason for watering restrictions. Those wasting water on keeping there grass green should pay more anyway.
Fred
24 Jun 09 at 2:26 pm
Apparently most municipalities in Ontario have a “sewage surcharge” on water bills that is calculated based on winter water usage. The surcharge is set at a rate to cover the cost of sewage treatment, which often happens to be very close to cost of providing water.
I’m going to do some more research into the Ontario model, but perhaps Don already knows how it works?
Jared
24 Jun 09 at 3:00 pm
I expect that this could vary between municipalities, or even between older and newer neighbourhoods within a municipality, in Ontario.
However, on my water/sewage bill from Waterloo North Hydro for April and May, I’m charged for 22.00 m3 of water at $1.26 per m3 and for 22.00 m3 of sewage at $1.40. So, apparently, the amount measured by the water meter is used for water and sewage billing.
Don
24 Jun 09 at 8:05 pm
[...] wastewater they produce. Many municipalities in Ontario, from Windsor to Ottawa, have decided that water consumption is a reasonable proxy measure. They specifically use winter water consumption, so flower beds are [...]
Letter to the Editor: Sewer Surcharges | MentalPolyphonics
29 Jun 09 at 9:35 am