The Municipality of the District of Lunenburg is taking steps forward in the campaign to stop raw sewage from being dumped into the LaHave River.
Mayor Don Downe says they have the support of all municipal units in Lunenburg, Queens and Shelburne County to do something to eliminate straight pipes.
In 1993, Porter Dillon Ltd. released the LaHave River Regional Sewage Treatment Strategy. This report revealed that there were over 800 straight pipes being used by homes and businesses within the study area, from Bridgewater to Dublin Shore to discharge human waste from septic systems into the LaHave River.
Downe says the first step is to do a new study to assess the scope of the problem.
“It’s difficult to tell how many people are affected now. The study is old and needs to be updated. We will have a better idea of what to do next and what will be required when the research has been done.”
At a recent Committee of the Whole meeting, a presentation used the example of results of a pilot project out of Richmond County that offered residents in the area subsidized support to replace or fix septic systems polluting the water. The project was initially met with resistence, but after some public education programs and awareness campaigns were implemented, there was full support from the community. There is now a waiting list to get into the program in Richmond County.
The goal is to get all levels of governments to help homeowners living on the LaHave pay for the cost of fixing or replacing septic systems polluting the waterways.
MODL is building momentum on the issue.
Council is in support of spending up to 95-thousand dollars on a new study and will take it to the provincial government to split the cost of the study.
The motion will now be presented to council at the next meeting.
Here is a link to the full report done in 1993: http://coastalaction.org/Wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Porter-Dillon-Report.pdf
