There are lots of benefits to not using your harbour as a toilet. While Olympic sailors are getting scared about Rio’s crappy water, Halifax’s clean harbour is enabling business start-ups. This summer saw the launch of two water-based cab companies—Harbour Water Taxi and Chebucto Water Taxi —and we went for a ride with both. The […]
Harbour Solutions
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sewage plant failure: design error coupled with electrical configuration problems
Friday, at 4:30pm, Halifax Water finally released the forensic audit of the January 14, 2009 failure of the Halifax sewage plant. The forensic audit confirms almost everything I wrote in my August, 2009 investigation of the plant failure, “How the sewage plant broke.” Here’s what I wrote two years ago, with minor adjustments, corrections and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council debates biosolids
The city will hire a university researcher to give advice on whether to use biosolids from the sewage system for municipal operations, Halifax council decided Tuesday. Before last year, sewage from the older portions of Halifax and Dartmouth was simply dumped in the harbour, and that was the end of it. But with the completion […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The south end smells like shit
[image-1] Halifax residents living in the vicinity of the sewage pumping station at Inglis and Barrington Streets are complaining of a foul sewage smell in their neighbourhood. Thursday evening, the odour was so strong that I could smell it two- to three blocks away, and while driving by in an air conditioned car. Some months ago, Halifax Water manager Carl Yates told me that there were design errors related to the pumping station but, citing pending small claims suits from residents of a nearby apartment building who had their cars flooded with sewage, Yates would not disclose what those errors
Posted inNews + Opinion
Contest! Name the sewage plant, win a crappy prize!
Last week, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made a news splash with their suggestion that they could buy naming rights to Halifax’s failed sewage plant. Of course, there’s no chance at all that the city will take PETA up on the offer, but it got us here at The Coast thinking: Why doesn’t […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Globe & Mail gets Halifax sewage wrong
The Globe & Mail rather lamely tries to connect Halifax’s failed sewage plant situation to the passing by of Hurricane/Tropical Storm/No Show Bill: The hurricane barrelling down on Halifax this weekend promises to bring the glimmer of a silver lining to more than just the surfers eagerly awaiting big swells. Coming after a stretch of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
BREAKING NEWS: Sewer report update
I’ll repost below a press release issued by HRM. I’ll note that the title of the release, “Joint Session Receives Positive Update on the Halifax Wastewater Treatment Facility” is a seriously pathetic attempt to spin the sewage disaster into “positive” news. Also, I assume the gist of this is that they’re not releasing the report. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council mired in secrecy argument
Halifax council today is meeting behind closed doors to discuss the forensic audit detailing the cause(s) of the Halifax sewage plant failure. Until now, the audit has been kept from council (see Peter Kelly wears the sewage disaster), and it continues to be kept from the public. Today’s meeting began at 9;30am, and as of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
BREAKING NEWS: HRM By Design passes. AND: Sewer plant failure understood.
Halifax council has passed HRM By Design, with minor amendments. Councillor Jennifer Watts was the only “no” vote. Also, councillors were just handed a five-page report from the Halifax Water Commission. The gist of it is this: The WC knows why the Halifax sewer plant failed, and will brief the council at a June 30 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Food safety issues related to harbour ignored
Since the Halifax waste treatment plant failed in January, more than 100 million litres of raw sewage has been discharged into Halifax Harbour daily. Worse still, last month the screens at the sewage outfalls were removed, so the sewage includes lots of “floatables,” the toilet paper and tampon applicators that rise to the surface. Is […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Expert: Halifax sewage plant decision violates freedom of information laws
[Editor’s note: Darce Fardy was Nova Scotia’s privacy review officer from 1995 to 2006, overseeing the provincial Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy office. After retiring from that position, Fardy founded the Right to Know Coalition of Nova Scotia, an organization that advocates for greater access to government information.] I know of no bigger […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax council’s secret sewer fixes
The electronics used to run council meetings—microphones, the computer that queues up speakers, the overhead “Elmo” projector, etc.—haven’t worked properly for at least two years, and the system has been ridiculously broken over the past month or so, with some mics not working at all, councillors dropped on and off the speaker system randomly, etc. […]
