About COTRA
COTRA is a not for profit technical think tank for onsite sewerage system issues.
We are independent of any other stakeholder organization, and are apolitical. Our focus is on onsite sewerage systems with ground discharge (dispersal) of effluent, both large and small systems.
We hope to be a useful resource for all stakeholders in the onsite industry-including regulators. We offer our services without prejudice to all organizations involved in the onsite field.
Currently we are focusing on technical discussion relevant to BC, but plan to expand our involvement (and our membership) to address technical issues relevant to onsite wastewater stakeholders across Canada.
COTRA is committed to furthering and fostering the adoption of performance based management of onsite wastewater systems in Canada, including performance based regulation.
What is COTRA's purpose?
- A forum for discussion of technical aspects of onsite systems
- To encourage and foster research in the field of onsite wastewater systems
- To provide technical information and analysis about onsite systems, including in relation to:
- Regulations
- Implementation of performace based models and codes
- Standard practice
- Site and soil investigation practice
- System design, construction, maintenance and monitoring
- Onsite system management
Gaps we hope to assist in filling
- Need for a centralized discussion forum for technical onsite issues.
- Need for support to developement of performance based models for onsite wastewater regulation
- Need for centralized reference resource for onsite in Canada.
- Lack of onsite research in northern climates.
Specific needs identified in British Columbia:
- Technical support for practitioners in the onsite wastewater industry, for those working on systems under the Sewerage System Regulation and the Municipal Sewage Regulation.
- Technical review of course content provided to practitioners.
- Proactive technical outreach to practitioners.
- Standards of practice aimed specifically at professionals, and support to these professionals.
- Communication on technical issues to local stakeholder groups (where these exist).
- Coordinated technical input to the CSA process and to ways in which BC could participate in this.
- Coordination of filing reviews with technical support and standards development.
BC currently suffers from fragmented efforts with no central forum for non partisan technical discussion, we hope that the COTRA initiative will help stakeholder groups avoid duplication of effort and assist in developing consensus on technical issues, divorced from political discussion.
COTRA membership
Current active members
- Ian Ralston BSc PgDipAgEng ROWP Eng.L.
- Michael Payne PEng PGeo
- Karen Halliday ROWP
- Darryl Brizan PEng
- Bert Telder PEng
- Ron McMurtrie PEng
- Rob Arden PEng
- Mike Seymour AScT, Eng,L
- Ron Hein ROWP
Criteria for membership
For effective and manageable discussion we plan to keep active membership to less than 15 people. Further people may be involved as resource persons or observers.
Membership in COTRA is currently by invitation, interested parties are asked to contact us. By nature COTRA is inclusive and has not strict requirements for membership, however key factors when considering whether you would like to be involved include:
- Are you willing to commit considerable volunteer time to furthing the goals of COTRA, serving the technical needs of the onsite industry?
- Can you be unbiased by your political affiliations and business interests when participating in COTRA?
- Can you avoid using COTRA to benefit your business interests?
- Do you support the concept of performance based management of onsite wastewater systems?