Beach restoration
Maritime Electric says remediation work will continue to make site usable for residents
Kim Griffin is looking to set the record straight after concerns over new plans to remediate a Borden-Carleton beach sparked public outcry in the community.
“I feel like there has been a miscommunication. The work isn’t completed on the project,” said Griffin, the spokeswoman for Maritime Electric.
Earlier this week, Maritime Electric held a ceremony officially activating the submarine power cable that will bring electricity from New Brunswick to P.E.I., but with the activation came public scrutiny over the state of the beach where the cable comes ashore.
“We’re in the stage of finishing the remediation work. Which is a tremendous amount to get finished.
“The Rip Rap Wall is being scaled back; we’re removing some of the stone, layer by layer. Once we remove the layers we’re going to install red sandstone and hydroseeding it so blends more into the bank,” explained Griffin of the work that
still needed to be completed. Work on the beach began on Sept. 4 and will take about three weeks to complete.
“This area is on our property but we want people in the community to be able to come and use the beach as we committed with the town.”
There will also be trees planted in the areas surrounding the beach.
Griffin says a major cause of the current state of the beach was the difficulty predicting when the cable installation
would be completed.
“In the winter the ice came in early and we had to protect the cable. There was a significant amount of rock brought in because there was a fair bit of ice scour and the cables were becoming unprotected.
“Our plan all along was to go back and finish that work. We want people to know while we had to do a little bit more to protect the cable, we are restoring the area so local residents can still use the beach.” Robert Palmer, a Borden-Carleton resident and vocal critic of the work to-date on the beach, said the conversation shouldn’t need to happen due to the scale of the project.
“It’s ridiculous to even have the need to fight for this. The project was over $142 million, it shouldn’t have been an issue,” he said.
To him, the new plans don’t change anything.
“If you look at what they’ve done, there’s a plan and there’s action. We haven’t seen much action. Plans are cheap.
“If this town wants to grow, especially in tourism, things need to stop being destroyed.” Mayor Dean Sexton said that some residents don’t know the facts and agreements that the town has come to.
“Myself and council are very pleased over the progress we’ve made with Maritime Electric. They are going to try to remediate as soon as possible. “With the amount of meetings we had and the hours we’ve spent to come to this agreement, it bothers me that so many assumptions have been made.”