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.
