Friends of Montrose Park

A large sewage pump station does not belong in our park.

Montrose Park is a small, wooded park between Royston and Union Bay, in the Craigdarroch neighbourhood of the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD). At just 1.1 hectares, it is a valued natural space, with potential for trails and a playground. It is the only park that residents of the neighbourhood can access without travelling along Highway 19A. In the future, the land across the highway is set to be developed, further increasing the importance of protecting this park.

The CVRD is still pursuing the South Sewer Extension while reviewing funding and phases. Its final Sewer Extension South Addendum Report, dated 6 August 2025, names Montrose Park as the preferred location for the Kilmarnock pump station, called PS3. At full build-out, that plan would route sewage through the park from a very large area that is projected to house nearly 14,000 people by 2070. Commercial and industrial sewage flows would also be routed through this sewage pump station.

Learn more

Key things to know

1. The project is still being pursued.

Union Bay Estates is no longer a key funding partner, but the CVRD is continuing to push forward with a south sewer extension project. The CVRD and K’ómoks First Nation are exploring alternative ways to phase the project so that they can leverage the existing $30 million provincial grant. The CVRD provided an update in the summer of 2026 indicating that it would be performing archaeological studies in Royston and Kilmarnock in September–October 2026 to help prepare the modified south sewer extension proposal. The modified proposal will likely postpone the inclusion of Union Bay to a future date.

The 2025 report remains the published reference for the long-term vision and the role of a sewage pump station in Montrose Park. By speaking up now, we can make it clear that we do not support that long-term vision.

2. Montrose would handle sewage from much more than the local neighbourhood.

The proposed system design links pump stations in a chain. At full build-out, all sewage from the four stations further south—PS4, PS5, PS6 and PS7—would pass through PS3 at Montrose Park, along with sewage from PS3’s own local catchment. The total catchment area for the PS3 pump station would include the entirety of Union Bay, future Union Bay Estates development and the entire K’ómoks Southland development (which will fall outside of the CVRD boundary.)

During consultations, PS3 was inaccurately described to residents as a neighbourhood pump station. The flow diagrams show that it would actually be a significant regional pumping facility.

In our view, consultation did not explain this wider role clearly enough. A resident’s presentation to the CVRD in April 2024 set out that concern and asked for further design review and consultation before committing Montrose Park to it. That request has so far been ignored as the CVRD has forged ahead on the current path.

3. A small local station, with regional pumping located elsewhere, is the only appropriate option for this location.

In March 2024, CVRD staff discussed resident interest in having a small neighbourhood station in Montrose Park that would pump across the highway to a larger regional station. The minutes record: “Can consider as option, but will increase costs.” The CVRD never quantified that extra cost and did not look into this option in any more detail.

A small local collection station is likely required in or near Montrose Park to receive gravity-fed flows from approximately 200 houses in the existing Craigdarroch neighbourhood. The larger station receives flows from all the other pump stations to the south and then pumps that sewage under pressure to the next regional pump station, located in Royston. That larger station could be located anywhere in the large undeveloped area of land to the west of the highway. Because that land has not yet been developed, a location can be chosen that will not detract from existing parks and will not be near any homes.

A very similar situation exists in Royston. Inexplicably, the CVRD decided to accommodate Royston residents’ concerns by splitting local sewage collection and regional pumping into two facilities while ignoring the same concerns in the Craigdarroch neighbourhood. We request fair and equitable treatment. Montrose Park is no more suitable than the Royston waterfront for a large pumping facility.

4. The consultation failed to disclose that the flow figures include commercial and industrial allowances.

After the final report was published, questions were asked about why the numbers in Table 5 did not add up. The CVRD admitted that it had failed to disclose during the consultation process that it was forecasting significant commercial and industrial sewage flows, and not just flows from residential users. That is a material omission that undermines the earlier consultations. The CVRD reluctantly agreed to update the report after the consultation period had closed. The revision history now records the 6 August 2025 reissue as a change to Table 5’s footnotes.

The difference is substantial. In PS3’s local catchment (not including inbound flows from other pump stations,) the table projects 2,943 residents by 2070. At the report’s rate of 240 litres per person per day, residential flow alone would be about 8.2 litres per second. The table lists 20.9 litres per second of average dry-weather flow, including the additional allowances. In other words, the CVRD was projecting that about 60% of the sewage flows from the local catchment would originate from commercial and industrial facilities. This raises many questions that residents were never able to ask and meaningfully changes the nature of the project.

5. Area A has been short-changed on parks funding, and now one of its parks is at stake.

Residents in Areas A (excluding the Islands,) B and C all pay taxes into a shared pool of money to fund parks. It has been established that the shared pool of funding has been unfairly used to disproportionately fund capital and operating expenses in Areas B and C for many years. Residents in Baynes Sound have been subsidizing parks in Areas B and C. As a result, there is a referendum this fall to create a Baynes Sound Parks and Trails Service. Unfortunately, even if the referendum passes, the significant amount of money that Area A has overpaid to fund parks in other areas will never be recouped. To make matters worse, the CVRD is now attempting to use one of our limited park spaces to create a piece of infrastructure that will receive sewage from a large geographic area, including a significant area that sits outside of the CVRD boundary entirely.

The CVRD needs to stop treating Area A parks and resident tax dollars as an afterthought and a convenient source of land. Montrose Park is a valued public asset to the residents of Area A and we have not consented to the park being turned into a sewage pumping facility.

6. A large regional pump station would have a major impact on the park.

The CVRD has not published an estimated footprint for PS3 at full build-out. However, a mock-up of the Future Regional Pump Station planned for Royston, which would handle comparable flows, shows a substantial building that appears to be much larger than a typical house.

Recent experience elsewhere in the Comox Valley shows what facilities like this involve. Construction of the new Courtenay pump station, part of the CVRD’s Comox Valley Sewer Conveyance Project, has created a significant construction site. Earlier this year, on 26 May 2026, an incident at the Jane Place pump station in Comox resulted in a massive sewage spill into Comox Harbour.

The building itself is only part of the footprint. When an access road, parking area and setbacks are considered, a facility of this nature would have a massive impact on a 1.1-hectare park. Significant trenching would also be required to install the pipes that carry sewage in from the south and pump it on toward Royston. Once the facility is built, ongoing operation may require frequent maintenance activities, which would bring additional traffic into a quiet residential neighbourhood.