RCMP are looking into complaints from a citizens group that the province is violating laws by allowing sewage to seep into Shediac Bay and Parlee Beach.
The Red Dot Association believes three provincial acts have been broken – clean water, clean environment, and public health along with the federal fisheries act.
Red Dot spokesperson Arthur Melanson says the province doesn’t seem to be making an effort to determine if there is a leak in the sewage system.
“They have spent a lot of money getting themselves prepared which they say it’s going to be fixed. We totally agree it’s going to be fixed for 2019 but what about the 2018 season,” he notes.
Melanson insists this issue is a matter of public safety noting that if someone gets gravely ill and it’s caused by the water, the reputation of Parlee Beach will be hampered even more than it is now.
Meantime, the provincial Department of Health has issued the following statement:
As a government, we are committed to ensuring the safety of New Brunswick residents and visitors as well as addressing the ongoing water quality issues at Parlee Beach and in the Northumberland Strait as a whole.
The province recognizes the seriousness of this issue and has delivered a concrete approach to address the situation in the long term and we are currently working on the implementation of a number of recommendations from the Steering Committee Final Report. In March 2017, the Steering Committee identified the aging sewage infrastructure at Parlee Beach as a potential source of bacteria. The government acted quickly and, as part of the May 10 announcement, announced that investments would be made to upgrade the Parlee Beach Provincial Park sewage infrastructure.
Crandall Engineering completed an investigation into the sewage infrastructure and submitted a report to the Steering Committee in July 2017. While the report recommended an upgrade of the lift station and collection system, is also concluded that video taken of the sewer video did not show any structural problems with this system, but observations indicate that there may be a sewer exfiltration issue given the sandy soil.
Further to that, a report titled Parlee Beach Sand Bacteria and Shallow Groundwater Flow Path Study prepared by Stantec was released last month and concluded that concentrations of faecal bacteria in the sand found at Parlee Beach were very low, which means that this strongly suggests that there is no evidence that the Parlee Beach wastewater system is a source of contamination.
In relation to swimming at the beach, based on the 2017 beach water quality monitoring results, there is no evidence to believe that Parlee Beach has a chronic water quality issue, the water quality being very good. According to scientific data, approximately 99% of the 1452 samples taken and analyzed in 2017 were below guideline values. This further emphasizes that water quality was very good at Parlee Beach last summer. That being said the province continues to operate its water quality program to warn residents when potential health risks are present.
