London’s Spaghetti WM Solution
“Until recently, city hall staff thought the city needed to build a $80-million plant in the south end to accommodate growth the next 20 years.” 01 Put another way, which better explains the politics of the problem, anti-sprawl activists have been advocating a diet plan to address the insatiable appetite of local developers.
Now we’re told of an amazing new ’spaghetti’ filtering system that will allow existing pollution control plants to handle new development for only $20-$30 million as opposed to the $80-million cost of a new-south end plant.
And Ron Standish (director of waste water and treatment) is reported to have called that “a good thing for taxpayers.”
Well, I beg to differ.
Waste management is only one of the costs associated with new development. And even if you’re willing to ignore all of those other costs (as too often happens), should we really be putting all of our WM eggs in our existing basket? And surely people must now realize following the collapse of the Dundas/Wellington intersection that we cannot forever delay the costs of maintaining/rebuilding our infrastructure?
I really, really mistrust ‘magic’ solutions. Especially with so many members of Council whose election campaigns were so healthily enhanced with financial contributions by the development industry.
Sources:
01. 008/03/27 - LFP: Hi-tech may save city $80M for plant
