Halifax council Tuesday agreed to $2.1 million in financing to install an over-size sewage pipe that will primarily benefit one property owner—Armco, one of the largest development firms in town, and one of the largest contributors to municipal election campaigns. This summer, Halifax Water will be installing sewage pipes to service Bedford West—the area west […]
Sewage
Posted inBest of Halifax
Worst Thing To Happen In Halifax In The Past Year
We’re not sure what’s worse, the actual failure of the sewage treatment plant that—at the date of this writing—remains out of service, or the lack of transparency in the mayor’s office regarding the analysis of the plant’s shutdown. Thanks to pressure from the public and media, they’re being a little more open about the ways […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Name the Sewage Plant Contest winner announced
The votes are in, and the winner of our Name the Sewage Plant Contest is… Shitstorm Central, contributed by reader Mike McKenzie. Mike wins a copy of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Puzzle Book #3, a $15.95 value contributed by Atlantic News. Congratulations, Mike! Related Stories
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dual methodologies
Your investigation of how the sewage plant broke was an interesting read. The criticisms over a one-step design/build contract versus a more common two-step design-then-construct process were not fair, as each method has its strengths and weaknesses. Proponents and detractors of each method exist with no side being able to claim that it is a paragon of excellence. It should be pointed out that municipal representatives would have been able to review, comment and ask for changes in the design. This would have been documented and come at a price, but it was obviously not a serious enough concern of
Posted inNews + Opinion
The operational loop
I disagree with the Toronto engineer’s negative view of traditional design/build public projects. However, I agree with the comment that “either way…” the “operations guys must be involved in the design process.” That, to my mind, is the key point of the whole article. To reiterate, it is not that the design/build process is necessarily […]
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
How the sewage plant broke
[Editor’s note: this story is one of five Coast articles selected as finalists for the 2010 Atlantic Journalism Awards. All five stories are collected here.] Halifax’s new sewage treatment plant was turned on in February 2008, and it seemed to fulfill its promised intentions immediately. All you had to know was that parts of the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The briny, grimy deeps
“I would love to see Nova Scotia do the same for marine waste as we have for on-land waste,” Lisa Kretz tells me in Clean Nova Scotia’s lunch room. She is the project officer for the organization’s marine waste project. “There needs to be more awareness and education, one person at a time.” Today it’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Tall Ships: shit’s gone too far
To the editor, I have appreciated The Coast’s perseverance in keeping city hall’s feet to the fire around its recent sewage debacle. Keep up the good work. However, last week The Coast included in your tall ships issue a map of the Halifax wharf (News, July 16), which pictured tall ship anchorages and their proximity […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council’s disaster tourism
Last Friday, city officials gave reporters a tour of the Halifax Wastewater Treatment Plant. It was the first public look at the plant since if failed the morning of January 14. The tour was led by mayor Peter Kelly, Carl Yates of the Water Commission and plant manager Rory MacNeil (pictured above). Councillor Jerry Blumenthal […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Peter Kelly wears the sewage disaster
[Editor’s note: this story is one of five Coast articles selected as finalists for the 2010 Atlantic Journalism Awards. All five stories are collected here.] “It’s a frustration,” allows Peter Kelly. Throughout a half-hour interview in his City Hall office, Kelly seems genuinely pained by the course of events related to Halifax’s failed sewage treatment […]