Colwood’s initiative to harness sewage to heat city hall and Wishart elementary is a good example on how sewage treatment should be approached in the Capital Regional District.

It’s not clear if Colwood could ever afford to build what are called water and energy recovery cells, or even if it has legal ownership of what goes down its toilets (one can only imagine the stink over that court battle).

But the City is at least trying to find alternatives to what is increasingly becoming a toxic issue across the CRD: spending $1.2 billion on secondary sewage treatment. Taxpayers across the region are facing a huge tax increase to fund this provincially-mandated project.

For decades, environmental groups have decried Victoria’s outfalls onto the Straight of Juan de Fuca as laying waste to the marine environment. These days scientists are falling over themselves to say that in fact currents and deep water dilute the effluent rendering it harmless. The truth is probably somewhere in between, leaving sewage treatment a necessary condition as the region grows.

But regardless, since its creation, Greater Victoria has been literally flushing away a valuable resource that less-squeamish European countries have cottoned onto years ago.

Extracting heat, cooling and water from sludge is no longer cutting-edge technology. Dockside Green development in Victoria is implementing a treatment and recovery system. Companies such as Boydel Wastewater Technologies, which did a sewage treatment demonstration at Colwood city hall in September, are primed to launch relatively inexpensive sewage treatment and resource extraction.

Colwood (and Langford if possible) should take the lead and show the CRD that municipalities can think regionally but act locally.