OSOYOOS TIMES-July 15, 2009
The whole Northwest Sewer Project effort is really dragging on.
The project has been planned for years and countless promises have been made in the past 12 months about shovels going into the ground any day now.
From here, it doesn’t appear that we’re anywhere near the point where a shovel can go in the ground.
This is a big project and obviously it won’t happen overnight.
Hurdles are to be expected.
But it’s almost becoming comical how every few months it seems something new emerges to throw a wrench in the plans to get the project underway.
Between right-of-way deadlines, the need for the entire Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen to have a one-hectare limit for septic systems and the failing economy, it would seem there’s some force at work here trying to keep the sewage extension to the northwest shore of Osoyoos Lake from happening.
One has to wonder what will come up next.
Maybe this barrage of delays and setbacks will never end.
Therefore, it’s time for someone to step up, grab the reins and start pushing the project forward.
Someone who will take no prisoners.
Someone with vision.
Whether at the municipal, regional or provincial level, we need a leader who is not afraid to brush aside the excuses and step on some toes to get shovels in the ground.
Figure out a reasonable way to pay for the project, kick, scream and bite to get around all the bureaucratic hoops we have to jump through and let the construction begin before the whole sewer project idea fades into memory and the health of the lake takes a turn for the worse.
Is anyone up to the challenge?
