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Letter: Uplands residents’ sewer position clarified

Residents strongly support Option 1 or Option 2 (gravity sewer) over Option 3 (pressurized sanitary sewer)

Re: Uplands residents reject individual pumps as sewer separation solution, Oak Bay News Feb. 5.

Thank you for placing the Uplands sewer separation project on the front page of the Feb. 5 edition of your paper.

Those of us who presented at the Feb. 2 Oak Bay committee of the whole are pleased that you are giving this important issue the attention that it deserves.

As I was the presenter named in your article, I would like to make two comments on the report of our presentation.  Possibly we did not speak with adequate clarity.

We strongly support Option 1 or Option 2 (gravity sewer) over Option 3 (pressurized sanitary sewer). Your reporting said that we supported Option 1. At this point it is not clear to us which of Options 1 and 2 would be preferred.

We ask that Option 3 be rejected and that Options 1 and 2 be evaluated further so that a knowledgeable selection can be made. There are issues such as the failure of a sanitary pump versus the failure of a storm water one.

We also commented briefly on the three hybrid schemes, Options 4, 5 and 6.

Prior to the meeting, we understood that our presentation time would be limited, thus we focused on the main issue of gravity sewer versus a pressurized sanitary sewer.  So possibly our comments here were too brief to be noted.

We noted that hybrid Options 4, 5 and 6 were of limited merit. The cost might be less but many more home owners would have to install and operate pumps (an additional 166, 174 and 136 pumps respectively), a very undesirable requirement in our view.

It should also be noted that for these three options, the municipality would have to build and operate additional pumping stations (an equally undesirable outcome).

Geoff Buck

Oak Bay