Sludge Watch ==> Saint John New Brunswick - feces still flow into the harbour

[Maureen Reilly]

Still, waters run dirty
Saint John, N.B., continues to dump untreated sewage into its harbour

Governments keep promising to fix it, but the city is still waiting to see 
the money
Sep. 23, 2006. 01:53 PM
MARK LEGER
SPECIAL TO THE STAR


Saint John, N.B.-One day in the fall of 2004, Tim Vickers was walking along 
the waterfront here when he saw a school of smelt feeding on feces and other 
waste flowing out of a sewer pipe into the harbour.
The next day he saw a man fishing for smelt at the same spot. The man had 
already caught several when Vickers walked by. A subsequent study showed the 
smelt population was contaminated, and people ran the risk of being infected 
by the E. coli bacteria.
"If the fish was properly cooked, it should be okay," says Vickers, the 
executive director of the Atlantic Coastal Action Program in Saint John. 
"But it's the handling of the fish beforehand that concerns me. What if 
someone cut themselves?"
He would have a similar concern if a child plays at the water's edge and 
cuts his or her hand on a rock, or goes swimming and swallows some water. 
There are signs that warn against swimming or playing near the water, but 
they don't explain why. But the reason is because Saint John is one of 
several municipalities in the country that still dumps some untreated sewage 
into its waterways.
It's an issue that many communities have been aware of for a long time, 
since before Confederation in the case of Saint John. The city had a cholera 
outbreak in the mid-19th century that many community leaders at the time 
blamed on the sewage problem. It's only become a priority, though, to many 
municipalities in the past 15 years. The challenge has now become securing 
the funds to fix the problem.
In Saint John's case, it needs all three levels of government to help pay 
for it. So far, the city government is the only one that's made a firm 
commitment. In meetings with the provincial and federal governments, Mayor 
Norm McFarlane has stressed that Saint Johners want this problem addressed.
"This is the number one priority of the citizens of Saint John," he says. 
"This is not just me asking for (federal and provincial) help. This is the 
citizens of Saint John asking for the help of the province and the federal 
government."
Other communities have been able to get all levels of government onside.
Both St. John's, Nfld., and Halifax have received federal and provincial 
money to build treatment plants. They still dump raw sewage into their 
harbours but won't once the plants are completed over the next few years.
Saint John, though, hasn't been able to get the senior levels of government 
to cover some of the costs, even though they both say they're committed to 
the project.
"I'm tired of hearing the word `committed,'" Vickers says. "What does that 
mean? Being committed to it on a philosophical level doesn't cut it right 
now."
The sewage treatment project was first proposed in 1993 after the federal 
government conducted a study of contaminants from raw sewage in the harbour. 
Over the years, politicians at all levels and from different political 
parties have said funding for harbour cleanup was imminent, but nothing has 
ever materialized.
The city had reason for renewed hope in March when federal Environment 
Minister Rona Ambrose came to Saint John and Vickers took her on what he 
calls the "toilet tour."
They walked along the waterfront and Marsh and Dutchman's creeks, which all 
contain sewage outflows. There are 60 pipes in all, pumping out more than 
5.8 billion litres per year of untreated waste from area homes and a 
hospital."It was a jaw-dropping experience for her," Vickers says. "There 
was (feces) ... condoms hanging from trees, tampons floating by in the 
stream."
Two weeks later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper came to town with 
Conservative Premier Bernard Lord for an announcement with McFarlane, a 
former provincial Tory cabinet minister. Hundreds of people gathered in a 
convention centre, with the widespread expectation that political stars had 
finally aligned and the $88 million project would finally proceed.


`This is the number one priority of the citizens of Saint John'
Norm McFarlane, Saint John mayor



Instead, the three men announced an agreement to fund the construction of an 
$8.5 million lift station that would divert waste to a new treatment plant. 
The three parties expressed a "commitment" to building the $45 million 
plant, the centrepiece of the whole project, but didn't say when the funding 
would be in place. "Everyone was stunned," Vickers says. "We didn't know 
what to say."
It's not known when - or if - the funding will eventually come through. The 
Lord government was defeated in the provincial election on Monday. The 
incoming premier, Shawn Graham, has said his government will pay for its 
portion of the project. The federal government still hasn't made a similar 
pledge, although McFarlane is confident it will.
"When the Prime Minister was here in March for the ($8.5 million 
announcement), he said this is the first instalment," McFarlane says. "I'm 
holding him to that. There must be a second instalment, a third instalment 
..."
Louise Payette, a spokesperson for Industry Canada, says the government 
isn't ready to make an announcement about further funding. She says it can't 
proceed until the issue is discussed with the new provincial government, 
which won't be sworn in until Oct. 3.
For Vickers and McFarlane, Graham's and Harper's pledges of support are 
merely promises that may or not be fulfilled.
They remain hopeful of a diplomatic resolution to the problem, which isn't 
the case in other communities trying to deal with a sewage problem.
In B.C., the provincial government has given the city of Victoria until next 
June to firm up plans to upgrade two plants that are dumping untreated 
sewage.
The Sierra Legal Defence Fund has launched a private prosecution against the 
Greater Vancouver Regional District to try and force it to upgrade its 
treatment facilities.
Part of the problem is that there are no national standards for sewage 
treatment, though there are two initiatives to establish them.
The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment is in the midst of 
consultations on setting effluent discharge limits. Claude Fortin, chief of 
the municipal wastewater effluent section of Environment Canada, says the 
government doesn't know yet what the limits will be or when new regulations 
will be in place.
Saint John Liberal MP Paul Zed plans to introduce a private member's bill 
later this fall that would make it illegal to dump untreated sewage into any 
waterway in the country. The Fisheries and Oceans Act already prohibits 
dumping untreated sewage if it kills fish populations, but he says he wants 
to take it one step further.
"We need to make it illegal to dump untreated sewage anywhere," says Zed, 
who adds that former prime minister Paul Martin had budgeted for harbour 
cleanup in Saint John had he been re-elected.
Saint John treats 50 per cent of its sewage, and the new plant would permit 
it to treat all of it.
Deborah MacLatchy, a biology professor at the University of New Brunswick in 
Saint John who has studied fish populations in the harbour area, says 
politicians shouldn't have to be forced to act, and should be able to rise 
above party politics.
"This is a motherhood issue," she says. "They should get partisan politics 
out of it. They need to make a decision that's in the best interests of the 
community."
Vickers, who sees kids playing every day around the polluted creek near his 
martial arts studio and a local school, is similarly exasperated. He says 
the situation is more urgent than in Halifax, St. John's or Vancouver 
because the sewage runs into waterways that cut through the heart of Saint 
John.
"There are no barriers to keep (kids) away," he says. "They're being exposed 
to God knows what."

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