Phase II Sewers - Exercise Your Minds, Then Your Democratic Rights!

The following piece was written as a 'Comment' on Lantzville Log Society Chairperson and intrepid reporter, Brian Blood's, report of May 2,5,8/09 ['SAVE HUDDLESTONE ROAD BEACH ACCESS/COUNCIL MEETING MAY 4TH 2009/TROUBLE IN BEACH FRONT COMMUNITY'] on the Log Blog (http://www.thelog.ca/). Since that blog is moderated (i.e., someone with the paper has to 'approve' the 'comment' before it will show on the blog), it remains to be seen whether it will or not. My Blog, on the other hand, is unmoderated so you can make whatever comments you feel are appropriate - I hope it will help to further the discussion.

Brian,
While I can certainly appreciate the concern expressed by the various presenters/residents at the May 4th Regular Council Meeting, as well as the contributors to this submission, one would be foolish not to expect that there would be some negative impacts of bringing collector sewers to Lantzville - the physical installation required is just one of those (some have already experienced this with the Phase I installations). Some of it can be mitigated with the appropriate expenditure of funds but, only to a point. This is just one of the reasons one needs to be very sure of their personal justification for wanting collector sewers.
There is much mention in your piece about protecting/respecting the OCP and, while this extensive document has some worthwhile aspects to it, it was agreed by 94% of those expressing either a formal written or spoken opinion at the Public Hearing that it was flawed in at least three major aspects - the significant density it would allow, its extreme generosity towards developers and the mega-project Lantzville Foothills development inclusion. You should remember that 'support' for the OCP was fabricated by the Mayor using his oft-repeated belief that the 'silent majority' is with him and Council - the very thing that you now latch onto in your argument regarding the interpretation of a 'negative' referendum. The current provincial government changed the rules and added the "50% of assessed value" requirement (prospective developers/owners of larger, more valuable landholdings, also get an 'extra' say)
I, for one, appreciate the fact that you attend most of our Council Meetings and offer your impressions in the Log for interested residents to peruse. Unfortunately, you are also one of those persons who appears to have jumped on the sewer bandwagon before you looked, stating publicly that you felt the issue was a "no-brainer". It now would appear that there is a need/use for our brains after all. You mention that this assault on our beach is especially troubling since we don't have a waterfront park but I wonder if you could remind us what your position was when the community had the opportunity, for about $59/yr./household, to purchase our very own 2 acre park on Sebastion Road? Before we try to have a 'fair' referendum (regrettably, not easy in this community) on the use of the beach access, shouldn't we have had a 'fair' referendum on sewers in Lantzville, all of Lantzville, as was proferred by Mayor Haime now oh so long ago?!
While it is true that the proposed sewage pump station at the end of Huddlestone Road, while being available for subsequent phases would be funded by the Phase II property owners, this is not unlike the situation where Phase I property owners (including yourself) have paid for much of the trunks and the beach interceptor which would be used to carry Phase II sewage to the treatment plant - nothing really that unusual there.
I have devoted hundreds of hours over the past 3 1/2 years to try and inform residents of what is going on 'behind the scenes' in Lantzville - hey, isn't that something that a local paper like the Log could be doing? Residents who are interested can access my 'Chutzpah' [defn: unbelievable gall] blog at http://vigilantz.blogspot.com - unfortunately, just as the Log Blog has experienced, Lantzville still doesn't seem ready to have frank and open discussions about issues that affect us. I would love to hear from any residents who have questions or concerns and are willing to invest some time in working to reach a consensus.
If the 'press' tried and had at least as much success as I did, you would have learned that the District didn't meet the criteria for the infrastructure grants (taxpayer's money) totalling $5.6 million. I am sure that you can understand that this leaves the entire program (which is based on limited funds being used to solve the most pressing, proven problems) in disrepute. The refusal of Lantzville's Chief Administrative Officer and Mayor to answer my specific questions about the District's eligibility for infrastructure funds for sewage collection has launched me on a two and a half year effort to obtain those answers. Since higher levels in the 'food chain' have also declined to answer or have taken many months to provide any form of response, what has become clear is that everyone is now ducking their responsibility and trusting that stonewalling will save the day - never a good sign for democracy!
I have been trying to get people to realize that the decision to bring sewers into a community is something that requires a great deal of thought and discussion. It is easy to see why large landowners would want sewers since it brings them one significant step closer to subdividing but individuals need to think very carefully as to why they should 'sign on'. The very first decision that needed to be made was why we felt we needed sewers in the first place, based on scientific, verifiable information.
Without conclusive proof that the fecal coliforms have been found in some of our ditches are coming predominantly from septic tanks, the District's contention that this is all about our health, is just so much 'smoke'. Although the District was required by their infrastructure funding application to provide this information and conduct a survey of individual properties ("all... applications must provide a documentary report detailing the nature and extent of individual failures in a survey which includes water, soil, wastewater and groundwater sampling and analysis") and they attested to doing so, they didn't and the province has now let them get away with it (twice!!). The head of the government department doing the evaluations for the applications has finally admitted that, in their opinion, the 'septic failure rate' in Phase I & Phase II is somewhere between 5 and 25% (in other words, they don't know - the Ministry of Health's own records show 7 & 23 repairs, respectively, over a fairly recent 9-year period), with 25% being the minimum threshold under the program criteria. So, that leaves the other main reason why sewers are introduced - development. We already know that Lantzville Projects and the Foothills have happily signed on, providing $981,000 to 'piggyback' on Phase I to cover the installation of their pipes and up-sizing trunks/interceptors in that area. Our Urban Containment Boundary area has already been increased from 2% to 32%, meaning that almost a third of the land area within Lantzville is eligible to be supplied with sewer and water and developed commensurately.
Given that these residents are now facing significant costs (even though several councillors/past councillors will be happy to tell you how 'cheap' our system is going to be compared to selected others), they need to carefully consider their situation. What is the expected remaining life of their current system? What would be required to repair it should it fail and how much is that likely to cost? How much is the proposed Phase II system going to cost them in total - don't listen to all the 'noise' around you, talk to people who do this for a living and others who have already been through it (Phase I/Barclay Crescent [French Creek]). Expect that the quarterly operating cost (which isn't part of the binding 'referendum') will increase [UPDATE 13 02 25: at their Regular Meeting, Council voted to increase the minimum annual sewer user fee by $108 from $168 to $276 (a 64.3% increase) for 2013, a further $64 (23.2%) to $340 for 2014 and another $30 (8.8%) to $370 for 2015 - don't say I didn't warn you! Although secondary treatment is the minimum level that municipally collected sewage being discharged to water should be treated to (we were already supposed to be there back in 1998!!), the significant operating cost increases of this improvement from 'enhanced' primary will begin to show in 2016, with user fees eventually settling in the $500 range (on top of $500-600/yr for 'capital' costs). Further confirmation of how much of a 'sell-job' collector sewers was from the 'get-go' in Lantzville, this from the CoW comments - "(m)ust be careful not to make the costs of connecting to sewer more expensive than maintaining individual septic systems", in other words, the sewer user fees were/continue to be manipulated by Council to get you to make the 'right' decision] and that you will use more water. Do not let fear or other people interests/agenda make this decision for you - exercise your mind along with your democratic rights!
On a final note, I am very concerned about how rampant self-interest has made us much less open to discussion and much less civil to each other. I am not trying to sell anyone anything and I will not make a cent as a result of their decision, one way or the other. My personal opinion is that those who throw in with people who would use misinformation and exaggeration to achieve an end reflect badly on all of us and are providing a very poor example for their children. Council has an agenda, the Log has an agenda and even I have one. Mine is to do what I can to get people to not allow others to do their thinking for them. We're still waiting for that in-depth sewer article that you had promised to write for the Log, it is truly unfortunate that you didn't take up an investigation of the whole issue of sewers for Lantzville long ago and pressed for the whole community to be involved in the decision. I guess it comes down to whose ox is being gored.

Democracy Is Really In Trouble!!

The voter turnout in the recent provincial election has sunk to a dismal 48%, down a full 10 percentage points from 2005. For a more in-depth discussion of this phenomenon in Canada, read my earlier post to this blog, 'Voter Turnout is All Relative in B.C. Politics'.
Commenting in the Vancouver Sun three days after the May 12th election, Harry Neufeld, B.C.'s Chief Electoral Officer said, "(c)learly people believe in democracy and the voting process. But they don't vote and they lie about it." Have truer words ever been spoken and what are we prepared to do about it?!?

Why I Hate Politicians!!!

I submitted the piece below as a 'Letter to the Editor' to 11 British Columbia newspapers on Friday, May 8th - it is yet to be seen if any of them will publish it. The letter arose out of my frustration and deep concern with what we have allowed to become of our 'democratic' system. Part of our abdicating our responsibility to nurture and guard it is disillusionment with the system due to some of these same factors, part of it is lazyness, part of it is born out of self-interest in its most base form and part is the result of some of us sacrificing principles for power, position and/or money.

Dear Editor,
I hate politicians because...
-they have taken everything that was good and noble about democracy and debased it
-they don't represent their constituents, rather telling them how its going to be
-they only need us at election time and then use the power we give them to cater to special interests
-they have often lied their way to power, with the blessing of the courts
-they teach us that "the end justifies the means", having some of us sacrifice whatever principles we may have had to self-interest
-they form governments that think they can do whatever they want, even to the point of breaking the law
-they will never admit to being wrong, 'spinning' absolutely everything
-they use our own money to buy our votes
-they look after themselves and their friends before you and I
-they support undemocratic practices, believing that, one day, it will benefit them
-they make it necessary to read between the lines and listen for what isn't being said
But the thing I hate them for the most is that, every day, they make a mockery of what so many of our soldiers have died for.
And what about us, we never hold them accountable for any of it! On Tuesday, let's all support BC-STV so we can finally start changing this broken system and be able to vote without having to hold our noses.