January 22, 1999, Cape Breton Post
Questions unanswered on sewer line
To the editor:
Lately there has been much said about the sewage
collector line project in Sydney, which is a good thing. I
believe that to put the collector line in before the sewage
treatment plant is once again putting the cart before the
horse, and it begs for answers to many questions.
First, is it legal? What are the environmental laws about
dumping into our harbours? Perhaps to G7 can answer.
I do know that if I, as a citizen, were to dump toxins or
anything harmful into our harbour or ocean, I could be
charged and fined. What or who would allow our
government to allow any municipality to go ahead with
such an endeavour? The legality of it needs to be
answered.
Second, what impact will it have on our lobster fishing
industry? Will this industry have to be closed, or who
plans to tell the lobsters to stay away from this pollution?
Perhaps the lobsters will be served with a Protection of
Properties Act order!
What will be the effect on human health if we allow more
pollution into our food chain? Who would want to
purchase these lobsters?
What will be the impact on our local beaches, such as
Polar Bear Beach? Will we continue to invite tourists to
walk on the boardwalk and watch the waves in our
polluted water while providing them with masks for
breathing?
Third, what are the monetary costs, now and in the
future, of putting this cart before the horse? Have the
costs of treating illnesses linked to this pollution been
factored into the equation?
Some say there is no money to do both the collector line
and the treatment plant. Some say there is. Common
sense should dictate that you couldn’t or shouldn’t have
one without the other — that is, if we wish to move into
the next century on a positive note.
It is up to the people to force this issue. Politicians at all
levels must be held accountable to find the money to do
this job right. If war were to break out tomorrow, the
money would be readily available. We in Canada spend
billions of dollars a year to help foreign countries get
clean water while we turn a blind eye to the messes in
our own waterways. If the collector line goes in before
the treatment plant, will we ever see a treatment plant?
Mary-Ruth MacLellan,
Phalen Road, Glace Bay
To the editor:
Almost six months ago I submitted a letter which was
published under the title: Proposed Collector Sewer
System Must Be Linked to Treatment Plant. This focused
on the collector outfall proposed by Cape Breton Regional
Municipality to collect raw sewage now being fed
upstream into Muggah Creek and the upper Sydney
Harbour, and redirect it, concentrated, into the lower
harbour off Battery Point. More than three million gallons
daily of raw sewage are involved.
In my last submission I noted the effect this would have
on Whitney Pier, which is the largest area in the
constituency I represent. Those concerns stand; they
have never been answered to my satisfaction.
Additionally, I raise the matter of the South Bar fishery as
well as what effect these plans will have on the
communities of South Bar and Victoria Mines.
There are some 20-odd fishermen trying to make a living
from a fishery based at the South Bar wharf, a facility
government did much to improve in the days of MP David
C. Dingwall. I would like to see that effort enhanced or,
at the very least, protected against ruination.
The layout of Sydney Harbour is such that untreated
sewage deposited off Battery Point will flow downstream
to the vicinity of South Bar, where the long sand bar will
act as a dam, catch the effluent, and concentrate it.
This has the potential to make the residential community
alongside the South Bar sand bar uninhabitable.
If people want to see what pouring concentrations of
untreated sewage into a harbour can do for adjacent
communities, they might take a trip to the foot of Daley
Road in New Victoria. There a sewage outfall, a very small
scale version of what is planned off Battery Point, has a
hideous effect on nearby shorelines. I believe people
deserve better than to have more such environmental
distress caused for the convenience of those living
upstream.
I say again that what is needed is a treatment plant as
an integral part of the interceptor sewer. I am well aware
of the orthodox argument that one shouldn’t press for this
because it would cost too much money. I deplore that
kind of defeatist thinking. I also say that if those making
such claims lived in Whitney Pier or South Bar, they would
have a very different perspective on this matter.
It is my firm view that nowhere else in Canada would such
a plan be tolerated, redirecting raw sewage from
upstream where there is no fishery to downstream where
there is. I believe this whole project ought to be
reassessed to see if the proposed cure is not worse than
the disease it seeks to remedy.
Paul MacEwan, MLA,
Cape Breton Nova
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