A stinky situation in Inverness
Petition calls for immediate action to replace village’s water and wastewater treatment plant
INVERNESS — In recent years, Inverness has served as a magnet for tourists, particularly well-heeled visitors drawn by two of the world’s premiere golf courses.
However, the growth that the village has seen has also come with a malodorous problem that led more than 200 community members to rally Monday evening and for 675 residents to recently sign a petition calling for immediate action to replace its water and wastewater treatment plant.
The issue has even been linked to the recent closure of part of the community’s beloved beach — the unsupervised portion — to swimmers due to elevated bacteria counts. Adele Poirier, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Department of Environment, wrote in an email that the water samples taken at the unsupervised beach showed elevated levels of the bacteria enterococci.
“This is likely due in part to issues at the sewage treatment plant,” Poirier wrote. “There may be other contributing factors as well. We closed this beach for swimming on August 16 and it will remain closed until issues at the plant have been resolved.”
She noted that the department received the testing results for the supervised beach Monday and they showed that the water is safe for swimming. The department is continuing to test. Poirier wrote that, if there is a closure of that portion of the beach, it will be posted on the Nova Scotia Lifeguard Service website.
Poirier confirmed that there hadn’t been closures at the beaches in recent memory.
“We are aware of issues at the sewage treatment plant and have directed the municipality to address them,” Poirier wrote.
Rose Mary MacDonald, president of the Inverness Development Association, wasn’t aware of the department’s decree until contacted by the Cape Breton Post, but she is more than aware of the persistent issues posed by the aging, overburdened wastewater treatment plant, which she describes as a crisis.
“The air quality is so bad, people are getting sick to their stomach with the odour,” MacDonald said. “It spreads throughout the town, it depends on which way the wind blows.
“A local physician told me, ‘you’re dealing with a contaminated site.’”
The section of the beach that is closed is the area where the plant’s effluent runs out to the ocean, MacDonald said.
“There’s a lot of sludge or something around that pipe,” she said.
The area of the beach that remains open is the flagged area, which is under the supervision of the lifeguard service, but that oversight ends after August, MacDonald noted, although people traditionally swim as late as October.
“We’re to assume, ‘swim at risk,’ that’s basically where we’re at. It’s a shame, it’s a beautiful beach, thousands of people come there.”
The municipality has filed applications for federal and provincial funding to replace the wastewater systems in both Inverness and Whycocomagh, at a cost of about $6 million each.
The growth in Inverness that has come with the golf developments at Cabot Links and later Cabot Cliffs and the accompanying amenities is welcome, MacDonald said, but no one anticipated how quickly it would happen and it has simply overtaxed already outdated infrastructure. The wastewater treatment plant was built in 1973.
“It’s not their fault, that’s all good stuff,” she said, noting local investors have also developed residential building sites.
She said no additional residential developments should be connected to the existing system.
The community takes great pride in its popular beach, MacDonald said, noting it was the first fully accessible beach site in Atlantic Canada.
“We don’t want to put anybody at risk,” she said
If there isn’t some positive news in the short term about the infrastructure application, MacDonald said residents of the community are prepared to board buses and take their fight to Halifax.
Cape Breton-Canso MP Rodger Cuzner said the once the infrastructure priorities are identified by the municipalities, they are vetted by the province and sent on to Ottawa. Of the approximately 60 applications submitted province-wide, about 20 were signed off on, given the funding available. Of the two wastewater projects in Inverness County, Whycocomagh was sent on to Ottawa because the focus is on projects that are shovel-ready, and it was farther along in its design than the Inverness proposal.
Cuzner said he expects another round of funding will come around soon after October’s federal election.
“Certainly, things are going to continue to worsen with the situation in Inverness,” he said. “It’s gotten the attention of the provincial officials.”
Cuzner said he expects the Inverness project to be given “every consideration” during the next round.
“It’s obviously critical in Inverness,” he said.
But he stressed there are immediate and long-term problems, and it’s important to ensure that a new plant has sufficient capacity to accommodate additional growth. There have been some infrastructure projects in recent years that likely should have already been undertaken, Cuzner said, but a small municipality such as Inverness didn’t necessarily have the financial means to take them on. However, the increase in the tax base associated with the growth the community has seen also translates to increased municipal revenues. The municipality has gone relatively quickly from trying to manage decline to attempting to accommodate expansion.
“(Growth) is a great problem to have, but it’s put increased demand on that infrastructure,” he said.
The rally was useful in demonstrating the degree of urgency felt in the community, Cuzner added.