Last week, the brand new Halifax sewage plant—-the largest and most important component of the $330 million Halifax Solutions project—-crapped out. Evidently, a power outage led to some as yet unknown cascading series of events, and the entire system failed. The pumps stopped working, and the entire building has filled up with raw sewage.
Now, they have to pump out the building and figure out what went wrong. No doubt much will have to be rebuilt or replaced. When the plant first came on line, it took about four months to calibrate the system and get it up and running, and I don't see why that won't be the case again.
In the meanwhile, raw sewage is once again being diverted into the harbour, just like old times. Consider it the city's contribution to heritage efforts.
The sewage plant failure comes on the heels of multiple problems apparently related to the pumping station at Inglis and Barrington, which has led to repeated floodings of nearby apartment complexes. I say "apparently" because the politicians and bureaucrats are tight-lipped about that disaster as well, trying to pawn it off variously as a regular event unrelated to the new pumping station, a building code violation on the part of the apartment developers or an act of a vengeful god. It's hard to believe that engineers haven't discovered the exact cause of the problem and written detailed reports about it, but if those reports exist they are some sort of state secret, as no one is making them public.
The sewage plant failure likewise is not a matter for the pesky public to worry its little head about. City spokesperson James Campbell is apparently out of the information loop—-he couldn't give me any technical information about the failure whatsoever, and wasn't aware that council was having a closed door meeting to discuss it, even as we spoke.
Council holds secret "in camera" sessions to discuss legal matters, and there are certainly a slew of them circling around the sewage plant failure. Somebody—-the contractor who built the plant, or we taxpayers—-is going to pick up the tab for this fiasco, but not before dozens of high-priced lawyers are dragged into the proceedings.
Still, there's no reason that council can't be briefed on the problem in public and then afterwards discuss legal strategy in secret. That it doesn't demonstrates continued contempt for the public's right to know.
As for the larger issue, it appears Harbour Solutions is misnamed.
