Esquimalt council has sent a message to the Capital Regional District urging it to drop plans to build a sewage treatment plant at McLoughlin Point.

The CRD's current plans contemplate building a plant to treat liquid waste at the site of the Imperial Oil tank farm on McLoughlin, but the site is too small to accommodate facilities to treat biosolids as well.

As a result, CRD staff have begun looking at potential sites around Victoria's Rock Bay area for a biosolid digester that would also incorporate heat recovery units that could provide energy to sell to downtown offices.

Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins said there are potential sites there can fit both liquid and solid waste treatment, obviating the need to build anything in Esquimalt.

"In the last month, we have identified some new and very exciting possibilities for the core region," she said.

"We know that the combination of the two on the same property, or very close to one another, is going to result in very significant dollar savings as well. If it's situated in the right place, the resource recovery is much more significant."

CRD environmental services manager Dwayne Kalynchuk said investigations of possible Victoria harbour sites are not far enough advanced to officially consider them a possibility. All of the areas under study are privately owned and would need to be acquired.

The CRD has already negotiated an agreement with Imperial Oil that gives the regional district first rights to purchase the McLoughlin Point site.

But Desjardins said she doesn't want the looming Dec. 31 deadline to submit the CRD's plans to the province to force a decision before the Victoria harbour options have been fully considered.

"Let's not make a premature decision until we have all the information," she said.

kvass@vicnews.com