A Bridgewater youth continues to collect accolades.
Stella Bowles came to the public’s attention for her work highlighting the high levels of pollution in the LaHave River.
Recently, Bowles won her Science Fair and will travel to Regina to the Nationals later this month.
She’s also been named one of the top 25 under 25 environmentalists by Starfish Canada.
Despite the honours, her focus is still on the LaHave River and she’s been making new discoveries.
“The levels are quite a bit higher when it does rain and I wondered why. So I found out that when it rains, the pipe from Bridgewater’s sewage and the water pipe are connected and they overflow into the river.”
Just how bad is the pollution in the river? Stella says, it’s not good.
“Um… you shouldn’t touch the water in most places – it’s so contaminated. I’m waiting from the federal funding from Bernadette Jordan. She told me it’s on its way.”
Municipal, provincial and federal governments have all promised to begin the work to clean the LaHave River.
South Shore-St.Margarets MP Bernadette Jordan says cleaning the LaHave is a high priority.
“The LaHave River project was submitted to Department of Infrastructure. It’s working its way through the channels. It is taking a little bit of time. But, I’m still really hopeful. I’m still advocating hard for it.”
Jordan says there is no standard timeline for getting funding for a project like this.
“You know we also have to keep in mind there are 338 ridings in the country and we are one. So, there are other projects as well that have to go through the process and sometimes it’s just a matter of the amount of things that they’ve got to look at.”
Jordan says there is a lot of interest in the project because of the work Stella has done.
You can follow Stella’s work on her webpage.
This year’s Team South Shore winners. Congratulation to you all @SouthShoreRSB pic.twitter.com/YOmv1QMdTg
— South Shore Science (@SSRSBSCIENCE) April 6, 2017
