Looking for a sign
P.E.I. cabinet ministers asked why swimmers weren’t warned of possible contamination at Cousins Pond
A P.E.I. MLA and at least one family want to know why signs to warn of possible E. coli contamination weren’t posted at a local beach after a liquid manure spill.
Summerside-Wilmot MLA Lynne Lund asked the ministers of health and environment why signs weren’t up sooner at Cousins Pond beach after a liquid manure spill left more than 500 brook trout dead in nearby streams on June 3.
Nearly four kilometres of streams leading into Cousin’s Pond on P.E.I.’s north shore were temporarily filled with liquid manure. Silt fences and a series of dams were built to stop the material from entering the water by 7 p.m. that day.
Details about the source and cause of the spill have not been released.
In the legislature on June 11, Lund asked Natalie Jameson, P.E.I. environment minister, about the safety of the Cousins Pond beach in light of the manure spill.
“Environmental health became aware of the spill on Friday, June 5, and immediately (arranged) for posting of a no swimming and wading sign near Cousins Shore pond,” said Jameson in the legislature. “Water testing was completed on the overflow run from Cousins Pond to the shore on Saturday, June 6, and it was free of fecal coliform bacteria.”
Jameson said she believed the signs were put up at the beach on Friday.
However, Reasha Walsh was at the beach with her family on Friday afternoon. She did not see any signs warning them of possible water quality issues.
“I’m pregnant, my two children are 5 and 7, my mother is immune-compromised. We were all swimming in that water. We had no warnings,” said Walsh.
And they weren’t the only ones.
“My estimation is that there was 50 people there,” said Walsh.
Lund asked more than once on June 11 to know when on Friday the signs went up at Cousins Pond beach.
She didn’t get an answer, but she did get some backtalk from Health Minister James Aylward.
“So, I will speak a little slower so that the honourable member might hear. I’ve already stated – Environmental Health, as soon as they became aware of the situation – they posted no swimming, no wading signs.”
On June 12, Aylward said he “spoke slightly out of character yesterday” and apologized to the house.
The signs went up late afternoon on Saturday, June 6, he said.
“Staff at the Office of Environmental Health communicated with the local watershed group on Friday and arranged for them to mark off the area with cautionary tape to prevent swimming and wading.
“Followed up, officials from Environmental Health were also on site Saturday to meet with the watershed group and install the additional signage, and that work was completed by 3 p.m.,” said Aylward in the legislature.
As of Friday, June 12, the Department of Environment, Water and Climate Change had finished the clean-up efforts and decommissioned the check dams, mulch and other control measures, said a spokesperson in a written statement.
Additional water quality samples were collected on June 9, and the investigation by Justice and Public Safety is ongoing, said the statement.
More than a dozen dead fish were found near the beach entrance last week, but the Department of Environment said the incidents are not related.