Smelly summer for iconic Nova Scotia tourist town
LUNENBURG, N.S. •Afetid smell is bedevilling one of Canada’s most recognizable seaside communities at the height of tourism season, with residents saying they’re often forced to roll up their windows and abandon their balconies.
Kevin Ernst lives on Lunenburg’s back harbour and says he has had to leave his barbecue and go inside several times this summer because of a distinctly pungent odour he likens to a dirty diaper.
The 53-year-old former fisherman’s home is directly across the harbour from the town’s sewage treatment plant, something he claims is a blight on the community that has fouled the air and its iconic shoreline.
“It’s disgusting and it’s unhealthy,” the longtime resident said in an interview. “I didn’t buy here to smell (expletive) all the time. If it was cow, that’s OK. But not human.”
Some of Lunenburg’s 2,300 residents say the 15-year-old plant is spoiling the scenic setting that is home to the famed Bluenose II schooner and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its brightly coloured buildings dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries.
The seafaring community is the third most visited site in the province, and has built a vibrant tourism industry that sees a steady stream of visitors through the summer and fall months.
But residents and business owners are becoming increasingly fed up with the stench and harbour waters contaminated by fecal bacteria that routinely exceed Health Canada guidelines and can pose risks to boaters.
Donna Selig, who works at the Bluenose Lodge bed and breakfast in Lunenburg, said guests ask more about the water quality in Lunenburg harbour and whether it’s safe to go near it than they do about the odour.
“They’re afraid and ask, ‘Is it OK to go to the waterfront?’ ” she said Friday. “I did have one couple cancel a boat tour because they were afraid (of ) getting splashed.”
The longstanding problem of contaminants in the water gained attention last year when Bill Flower, an outspoken critic of the municipal government’s handling of the harbour pollution, was accused of smearing sludge from an outflow pipe on the mayor. Flower, who runs a tour boat company near one of the outflow pipes and often has his hands covered in the slime, has been pressing the town for years to clean up the harbour. He wants the pipe relocated closer to the mouth of the harbour, away from the busy waterfront that features a fisheries museum and other tourist spots.
The municipality launched a summer testing program for fecal contamination at several sites throughout Lunenburg harbour and along the waterfront, and is posting results on its Facebook page. One of the most recent tests showed that two of the three waterfront sites were well above federal secondary contact guidelines for the bacteria, known as enterococci.
On July 24, a test at the Fisherman’s Wharf registered about 2,500 colonies per 100 millilitres of water. Health Canada’s guideline for secondary contact is 175 colonies per 100 millilitres of water.
Testing in five other sites closer to the mouth of the harbour found bacteria levels below Health Canada’s primary contact guidelines.
Shanna Fredericks of Coastal Action, which is running the testing, said there are many known and suspected sources for the bacterial contamination. That includes the sewage treatment plant’s effluent, raw sewage being piped into the harbour from the Garden Lots community, possibly boating traffic and sediment on the harbour floor that likely contains bacteria.
Combined sewer overflow pipes also can unleash raw sewage into the harbour during heavy rains.
The effluent from the plant is treated and meets provincial guidelines, but Fredericks said it still contains bacteria because the threshold is higher than certain federal guidelines.
The municipality is installing a $1.1-million biofilter at the plant to reduce the odour.
Lunenburg town council issued a statement this week saying the issues are not unique to the town and that it is working to address them.