Here’s a theory

Souris seaglass woman says broken glass coming from old dump site next to beach

The woman who runs a seaglass shop next to the Souris Beach has a theory as to where all that broken glass is coming from.

Patricia McLean-Ettinger, who runs the P.E.I. Seaglass Shanty, says there used to be a dump site right next to the beach.

And that dump is beginning to wash out.

“We’ve had some really, really high tides,’’ McLean-Ettinger said. “One of the highest tides I’ve ever seen was last week. It’s pulling out all the old glass and it’s depositing it on the beach.’’

She dismisses any notion that anyone is going down to the beach and breaking glass with the goal that someday it will turn into seaglass.

One might think it a reasonable question considering McLean-Ettinger said Souris Beach is the best seaglass beach in the province.

“It is a gradual incline beach so there’s not much of a drop off out here. Out here, it gets pushed in with every wave so the glass that’s pushed in with every wave is soft and polished. It’s frosted; there’s no sharp edges.’’

She said it would take about 10 years for a sharp piece of glass to become rounded and seaglass worthy.

As for solving the ongoing problem of the sharp glass on

the beach, McLean-Ettinger said someone has to put up something that prevents the waves from sucking out glass

from the old dump and pushing it onshore.

DAVE STEWART/THE GUARDIAN Patricia McLean-Ettinger, who runs P.E.I. Seaglass Shanty on the Souris boardwalk, says there’s no better place in P.E.I. to find seaglass than along Souris Beach. But it’s also becoming known for a more troubling issue, broken glass which she says is...