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Ladysmith man leads Cold-FX suit P. 4
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Serving Ladysmith, Chemainus and area
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Cassidy ‘posse’ cleans up : P. 3
From Kinsmen Beach in Chemainus to Transfer Beach in Ladysmith, and many points in between, people were treated to a spectacular rainbow Sunday, Feb. 28. The arch appeared in the sky shortly after a sudden squall, and was visible for more than 10 minutes over a wide area. This shot was taken at Kin Beach, with the rainbow arching over the lighthouse, and apparently touching down on some fortunate mariner’s sail boat, which must contain at pot of gold. CRAIG SPENCE
Bio-solid composting to continue at public works yard Craig Spence THE CHRONICLE
Bio-solids from the Ladysmith Waste Water Treatment facility will continue to be composted at the public works yard on Sixth Avenue and Roberts Street, but going ahead with an upgrade at the site doesn’t rule out moving the process somewhere else in the future. Ladysmith council approved a series of motions that will expedite construction of a covered structure to reduce the odors that occur during composting. About 1,000 cubic meters of biosolids, extracted from effluent
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at the town’s waste water plant at the south end of Oyster Cove Road, are trucked to the public works yard for composting each year. “Despite the town’s best efforts, the fresh bio-solids can occasionally give off objectionable odors during the first few days of processing,” reported John Manson, director of Infrastructure Services. “The only way to effectively deal with this issue is to process the material within a covered building, which is equipped with an odor control system.” He said the bio-solids being composted in the covered fa-
each
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cility will have ‘sufficiently stabilized’ after seven days to be moved outdoors ‘without odor issues.’ Ladysmith has been awarded a $570,000 federal Gas Tax grant for ‘regionally significant projects’ to build the covered structure at the public works yard, and the town has allocated another $300,000 for the project, “but the deadline for expenditures is Dec. 31, 2016,” Manson said. To meet that timeline council agreed to waive its normal purchasing procedure and accept a ‘sole source’ proposal for the project from Transform Com-
post Systems, an Abbotsford ment, expected to kick in later company. this year. That will double the Although council approved amount of bio-solids generated the recommendation to con- at the waste water treatment tinue composting bio-solids at facility. Ladysmith’s public works yard, An upgraded facility at the concern remains that it is not a public works yard would be well-suited location. “able to process the future vol“I really don’t think the pub- ume of bio-solids expected with lic works yard is where we the secondary treatment plant should be composting, I think upgrade,” Manson said. we should move it to Peerless “The completion of this upRoad,” said Coun. Joe Friesen- grade in 2016 will, as a minimum, han. “You can get rid of 90 per allow the town the option to cent of the smell, but you’re al- continue to process bio-solids ways going to have a smell.” at the public works yard, even Compounding the problem is if portions of the bio-solids are Ladysmith’s scheduled switch also sent to other locations for to secondary sewage treat- processing.”
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