THE CORPORATION OF THE DISTRICT OF OAK BAY
MUNICIPAL HALL - 2167 OAK BAY AVENUE - VICTORIA, B.C. V8R 1G2
PHONE (250) 598-2042 FAX (250) 598-9108

Dear Resident,
The provincial government, through its Master Sewer Regulation, has mandated that combined sewer and storm water overflows must be eliminated. This means that all coastal communities must take the appropriate action to separate storm water flow from sanitary sewage flow in municipalities where single pipe systems occur.

Currently in Oak Bay, the Uplands neighbourhood has a single pipe system to accommodate both sanitary sewer and storm water flows. This single pipe system is the original system installed more than 100 years ago. As compliance is mandatory, Oak Bay is planning now to undertake the necessary due diligence to inform options and decisions going forward as we move towards compliance.

A Request For Proposal (RFP) is being considered by Council on February 17th to contract an engineering firm to gather data that will inform preliminary design options to address the separation of storm water flows from sanitary sewer flows. The work would consist of a regional survey of property elevations in relation to the existing pipe location. Gathering this information is key to informing options to address the storm water sewer separation requirements going forward.

We anticipate that survey work will commence in the Uplands in late May or early June, and that the data will be collected over a period of 10 to 12 weeks. We expect an update on Phase 1 of the findings to come to Council in the fall identifying a range of options and an order of magnitude of costs. This information will be shared with the community and will help guide Council’s direction to proceed to Phase 2 – the gathering of more detailed information and refined cost estimates for one or two options.

Prior to the commencement of survey work, we will follow up with a letter introducing the engineering firm that will be conducting the work, and outline the logistics of the survey. Notices will also be posted in the Oak Bay News and project updates will be available on the Oak Bay website.

Thank you for your support as we move forward with this initiative. Should you have any questions or concerns, please call the Oak Bay engineering department.

Yours Truly,
David Marshall B.Sc., A.Sc.T.
(Director of Engineering Services)
250-598-2042, Local 7421