July 27, 1998
C.B. proposes dumping
sewage into harbor
By JOCELYN BETHUNE, The Chronicle-Herald
Sydney
The Cape Breton
Regional Municipality if proposing that raw sewage now being released into
the tar ponds site be dumped directly into Sydney Harbour instead.
The municipality
plans to build a single interceptor sewer that will run the perimeter of
Muggah Creek, linking 30 storm and sewer outfalls, and it wants to know
the public's opinion of the plan.
The Joint
Action Group on the cleanup of the tar ponds and Environment Canada will
host an information session Monday from 4 to 7pm at the Delta Hotel on
the Esplanade in Sydney.
"What (the
interceptor sewer) will do is gather all the sewage, (and) pick it up so
it will no longer be draining into the tar ponds," JAG spokeswoman Germaine
LeMoine said.
It is hoped
that a treatment plant eventually will be build, she said.
But Elizabeth
May is shaking her head at the proposal. The executive director of
the Sierra Club, a national environmental group tht now has the tar ponds
cleanup at the top of its priority list, says neglecting to build a treatment
plant now is bizarre.
"It is a very
... 19th century approach to just dump it (raw sewage) in the harbor.
"It certainly
is an excellent idea to have a collector sewer but it is completely unacceptable
to dump it in the harbor."
Ms. May said
it is time governments, starting with the municipal government, did things
right in Sydney. She said Mayor David Muise has gone on record saying
the municipality doesn't have the resources for such a project.
"If there
isn't support for a conventional sewage treatment plant to be put at the
end of the collector pipe, what hope is there for the kind of significant
dollars that are required to clean up toxic contaminants?"
Ms. May said
it is time for the mayor to ask the provincial and federal governments
for funding for a sewage treatment plant.
Mr. Muise
could not be reached for comment Saturday.
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