Federal-Provincial Assessment Review Panel for the Halifax-Dartmouth Wastewater Management System Volume 3, 23 March 1993 (Halifax: Halifax Harbour Cleanup Inc. 1994)
Volume 3 (St. Paul’s Parish Hall, Herring Cove, NS)
Introductory notes
The material in this volume deals specifically with the treatment of waste from the communities of Herring Cove, Spryfield, Purcell’s Cove, Macintosh Run.
This volume begins with a re-introduction of speakers and the mandate of the sessions. Early in the document, the following element of significance becomes clear:
Following the EIA, the EARP announced on 3 November 1992 that it required additional information from HHCI before it could proceed with public hearings. On 15 January 1993, the Panel received the first if HHCI’s supplements to its Environmental Assessment Report. This was reviewed again by the government, the Panel and the public, and the Panel felt that it still needed some additional information, but HHCI committed that it could produce that by March the 15th. As a result, the Panel announced, on 22 February of this year, the schedule for the hearings (5-6).
[T]he Panel does not intend to receive any additional information, either oral or written, from the public, HHCI, or government agencies after the end of these hearings (10).
There are special arrangements for the media, but I do not see many media people with us this afternoon, so I think we don’t need to review those (11).
Cy Allan, speaking specifically on waste treatment for Herring Cove and the surrounding communities.
Madam Chair, if I may be allowed to proceed on this, I would like to discuss, in some detail, the alternatives examined in Herring Cove, and the degree of public participation that we had with the communities in this area in order to help us to arrive at the recommended solution for the treatment facilities here (18).
There were two distinct options available for the Mainland South/Herring Cove situation.
“Principally, there is one solution that intercepts the flows, in one location or another, and transports it all across to the regional treatment facility.
The other solution proposes alternate schemes for treating the flows in the Herring Cove location. The reason we wanted to look at this particular option, principally, was in response to Recommendation Number Eleven in the Halifax Harbour Task Force Report, that said that the problems in Herring Cove should be examined and resolved as soon as possible (75).1 [Part of the challenge here was that a] “CSO currently discharges the excess stormwater into a freshwater stream called McIntosh Run” (20). The Report recommended tertiary treatment for all discharges to McIntosh Run.
[Furthermore, the citizens of Herring Cove and area were represented by the Herring Cove Ratepayers Association] “[T]hey sent a letter to HHCI, saying that their position was that there should be no treatment of sewage flows in Herring Cove, and that their option is to have all the flows transported from Roach’s Pond, across the Harbour, to be treated in the main treatment plant in Halifax, and furthermore, they did not want a treatment facility in Herring Cove to treat Herring Cove flows. They would prefer to see a pumping station constructed in Herring Cove, to pump the flows back to Roach’s Pond, and flow them also back to the main treatment plant in Halifax.
Following that resolution by the Halifax [Herring Cove] Ratepayer’s Association, we received a letter from the Halifax County, which indicated that Counsel had passed a Motion supporting the Herring Cove Ratepayers’ decision, and they would like HHCI to consider the solution that they offered, and that is to convey the flows back from Roach’s Pond, and transfer them to the main regional treatment plant, and as result of that community involvement and as a result of the decisions that were conveyed to HHCI’s Board, we then looked at other alternatives to conveying the flows from Roach’s Pond into the regional treatment system, and this is again where we had a great deal of input and a great deal of assistance from members of the community who wanted to offer other alternatives. The communities, generally, were opposed to crossing the Backlands, certainly with any pipeline or surface crossing. They felt that the Backlands were an area that must be preserved, and to intrude upon them in this way would cause irreparable damage to the areas (28-9).
[T]hese considerations were presented to the HHCI’s Board of Directors, and they elected to go with what we now describe as option 2D, and it is the construction of a tunnel from Roach’s Pond to Purcell’s Cove at the Northwest Arm into the main collector tunnel (31).
Cy Allan: McIntosh Run: because of the discharges in there, has been a long-standing source of irritation to the residents, and a longstanding source of concern, and they are very anxious to stop the contamination of McIntosh Run with this proposal (39).
That was why the tertiary treatment plant was located at Roach’s Pond […] to discharge treated effluent into McIntosh Run, because regardless of the fact that it has been treated, it still goes into the McIntosh Run, it still goes through a freshwater body, and it still goes through the Herring Cove community, because that is the outlet to the McIntosh Run (47).
On decision-making in the project.
Chairperson (S. Conover): I have one more question, and it goes back, in fact, to you, Supplement Number One. You laid out the design and the costs of your several options, and then all of a sudden, one had a sense, kaboom, Option 2E had been decided upon. I am sure the logic for that was buried in the report, but it was not clear why 2E was preferred[.]” […]
Mr. Allan: [I]t was because it eliminated all flows into McIntosh Run. It was the only option that enabled us to prevent sewage being discharged into McIntosh Run and reduce the number of outflows that way (50).
Heather Brown [community member, Herring Cove]: [W]e certainly did discuss the environmental impact on the community. It was suggested that we did not, and that the only reason that we did not want it coming out here was because we were fed up with it. That is not so. We did discuss it, and our main environmental reason was that having a sewage treatment plant in Herring Cove would destroy the character of the village. I am sure there were others, too, but that was the main one. [On the new proposal put forth by HHCI]: [I]t might, from an engineering point of view be a better proposal, that again is going to destroy the character of Herring Cove. If that means digging up and blasting along Village Road and John Brackett Drive around the water, it is going to do exactly the same thing. So, you may as well come back to square one and rethink the whole thing.
Mr. Allan: You are absolutely correct. […] This solution that we are doing here is an evolution of the design process (55).
Ms. Brown: I am sure that there are some people in Herring Cove that will be very happy to be able to connect into a sewage system; there have been a lot of problems here., but as I said, this is a new one, and in fact has not been discussed with any of the community (56).
Blair Sullivan: Yes, my name is Blair Sullivan, and I am a commercial fisherman from Herring Cove, and we have a thing called cause and effect. When I look around this hall, I think I see about six (6) people here from Herring Cove per se. I represent eight (8) generations of fishing people, my ancestors in Herring Cove.
Halifax and Dartmouth have succeeded in ruining our livelihood in Herring Cove, the commercial fishery. […] [T]he outfall down at Watley’s Cove successfully ruined every one of our trap fishing berths along the shore from down Halibut Bay, all the way to Sleepy Cove.
The rest of the outfalls out of Halifax ruined all of our lobster fishery in the northern part of the inner approaches. They ruined our winter herring fishery. They have ruined our summer herring fishery, they have ruined our cod fishery, and now they are trying to ruin the little bit that we have left, the rest of our lobster fishery. If you take a simple look at McNabs Island, and you see where they want to put this great save-all, they are putting it on the northern tip up at Ives Knoll. Now, we run our lobster lines from that very tip, all the way down past Majors Beach, right down the whole of McNabs, all the way out to Trump Gap. We were driven away from this side of the Harbour, because of pollution from all of the sewage. […] This station here. If people from Halifax Harbour Cleanup would be probably a little more honest with the people, this is going to be located at the tip if Herring Cove.
Now, we have fought these people [Halifax sewer] for years about polluting that freshwater environment [McIntosh Run]. They have managed to ruin that. We no longer have a gaspereaux [alewife] fishing industry here, and because of that, the cod fish and haddock and the cusk and the hake that chase the gaspereaux no longer come here because there are no gaspereaux to chase (63).
There are eight (8) full time boats down there [Herring Cove]. I have one son; because of the pollution of Halifax Harbour, he could no longer participate in the fishery. I had to send him out to British Columbia to fish. I have my other son now is hanging by his nails, because they have polluted the whole thing. [W]e cannot have any sales if there is nothing over here but pollution. All out here we can catch, we put our nets out here anywhere within a five (5) mile radius of Halifax Harbour, and all we get are prophylactics, we get tampons, we get Flush-a-byes, and we get excreta right up to the elbow, and this is what we have (64-5).
Steve Fudge (HHCI) in response to Sullivan: Mr. Sullivan, I think that certainly your graphic description of the conditions of the Harbour and the difficulties that the Fishery has experienced, particularly here in Herring Cove, with the Watley’s Cove outfall and so on, and the condition of the Harbour, I think brings home for somebody like yourself, who makes their living on the sea, what you see every day out there in the Harbour and in the areas of Herring Cove, and it certainly underscores the problem that we have here, and underscores the necessity to do something about it and to resolve it. I think that you graphically illustrated it must better than the written text on the problems that the Fishery is experiencing, and the pollution that this out there. And I thank you for it. […] [W]e worked with the design people at HHCI. And our Lobster Biologists, to try to create additional lobster habitat around that island in the armour stone, and in the granular material at its edge, to actually improve, and we worked with DFO on this as well, to actually come out with a net gain in lobster habitat in an adjacent to that island site (72-3).
Lesley Griffiths: I wonder if HHCI would, in fact, address the question of compensation to fishermen, in the event of something happening which, in fact, did cause damage, either here or at any other location, and we may be talking about eventualities that are, you know, risks that are very small, but we are talking about risks nevertheless. […]
Mr Calda: If the failure occurred, we probably would be liable for compensation in any case, or the operator of the system would be, but we are far from, Madam Chair, from actually constructing it, and I am sure that with the activity in this area they [the community?] will be very involved in designing the system when we get around to design it, that is (80).
Julie Dempsey[community member, Herring Cove]: I will be living across the street where the pumping station is proposed, Is do not feel that that is a really suitable place because the land there is a whole bed of rock. And if it happens to overflow, it is going to go right down to the fishing village where my husband’s – all the brothers fish, and that means that we would have twice as much sludge that we are already getting from Powers Pond now coming down all the time because of the overflow from McIntosh Run. […]
I am concerned […] having to have a treatment plant going into the Backlands, it just comes in mind of a ruination of our water system, that – we have all dug wells here. […] [W]e feel like we live in a cesspool in the summertime [because of the smell from the pumping station] [T]he way I look at it is just take the pumping station out of Herring Cove [village] and put it anywheres on the Herring Cove Road and pump it back to the city (88).
Earl Hickey: Overview of the EIA (see other doc) pp. 97-106.
Rod Giffen: I am from Purcells Cove. The main concern since this exercise started with the residents of Purcells Cove has been our water supply, and the effects that this construction would have on it. We have never received a satisfactory reply to our concerns.
They say they will replace our water temporarily, they will drill our wells deeper. How? Will we have to fight through the Courts, with lawyers, at enormous expense? […] We are not receiving any benefit from the [sewage treatment] plant, because we do not hook up to the City services. We treat our own sewage. We pump our own water. […] Why are we going to have to deal with a company that could go out of business? (109).
John Burns: I am a resident of Portuguese Cove and the reason why I am concerned is because there has been a lot of talk about how the county and everywhere into the city and basically giving a broader tax break or tax population to pay for this Halifax cleanup[.] […] But, there seems to be no concern about the cleanup of toxics that are going to be released in this water. There is no treatment for toxics. Why not? You are trying to clean up a place here, a Harbour, and you seen people here go around for the fishing and the most polluting thing there are toxics, and you have got no plan to clean it up, as I understand. […]
That is my question : what is going to be done about the toxics, the industrial stuff that is being put in here? Otherwise, you may well not clean the Harbour? (133).
Mr. [Steve] Fudge: Yes, I think Mr. Burns’ point is well taken; that primary treatment alone in its own right will only remove a portion of the toxic chemicals, you know, from the sewage, and obviously, the resolution ultimately of what gets in that sewage system, and how it is put in there and how it is controlled, lies with the people in this room and with the community at large, with the municipalities and so on. It is the people who live in the community who put the stuff in the drains, and the programs of source control and so on that obviously have to be introduced in this area; bylaws have to be enforced and so on by the various municipalities to try to control these things.
Mr. Burns: Well, I submit to you that people do contribute for sure, to this problem, but there is an awful lot of industrial parks[.] […] Saying well, we should enforce the laws, or we should make people do this or that. There is no place. There is no treatment. There is no way to say here, if you have this, bring it there and we will treat it. Or something. There is nothing, […] this plant here, all it is going to do is to change the colour of the water to make it look good, but the real toxic stuff is still going to go in there and all the animals and the lobster, you know – many of the fish – like he fishes lobster, and other people do, too. Now, there are some places they cannot fish because of this contamination (136).
The Chairperson: Thank you, Mr. Burns, you have made some excellent points, raised some very important issues, and there will certainly be continuing discussion of that, because other people are very concerned about the question of toxics, source controls, and how those things can be brought in (137).
Heather Brown: Yes. I mentioned earlier that this new route plan is certainly new to me […] and I suspect that most people in Herring Cove have not heard about it either. I think those people ought to have heard about it before this meeting tonight, because a lot of them won’t come because they do not feel it affects them (138).
[…]
The Chairperson: Of course, one of the reasons that we circulate through the communities is to pick up the local concerns, and we are very grateful that we have heard as much as we have from the immediate community this afternoon. We do take these things very seriously, and they are incorporated in our report, as well. I nonetheless recognize your concern that there are other people who are potentially affected who do not know about it, and it is always much more satisfactory to have heard firsthand and been able to ask your own questions (141).
Carvel Reyno: You have expressed a concern, Madam Chair, about the lack of residents being herem and it is a very good point, but we have been coming here for thirty-five years (35) years or so now. […] The problem got worse for thirty-five (35) years or so. It is as bad as it is now. I do not think people believe anybody when they come and say they are going to help them any more. They just do not like coming to meetings like this, and that is the reason; nobody does anything; a lot of people come here, they talk. The premier came and talked, everybody listened and clapped. Nothing was ever done (145).
