Visions of The Northwest Arm
March 24, 2003
By Jan
It�s no secret that the Northwest Arm is polluted. There are four sewer outfalls on the Arm. One is a major outfall located at Point Pleasant Park. The other three are overflows, two of which are near recreational boating facilities, the Waegwoltic Club, and the St. Mary�s Boat Club.
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�Anyone who goes out on the Arm sees it in the first five minutes,� says George Rogers, who sits on the Waegwoltic Club�s board of directors, and is the director in charge of sailing.
�We just sort of steer clear of it,� says Rogers, �just to kind of stay away from the direct exposure. And, some day�s it�s heavier that others, the pollution. After heavy rains, stuff like that, systems get overloaded. It floods the Arm. It�s pretty gross.�
The Waegwoltic Club holds sailing lessons in July and August every summer, and the pollution of the Arm water is an issue that is constantly being dealt with. While the students don�t ever purposely tip their boats in the arm, it is possible for it to happen.
�The sailing school has certain procedures in place, because of the water, such that if somebody upsets, or goes in the water, they shower, and they�re encouraged to bring a change of clothes, and the boats are scrubbed down after each lesson, that kind of thing,� says Rogers.
�I have to say to date, with all those precautions, we�ve not had any problems. And people haven�t said, �I�m getting sick because of this, I�m getting an infection, or rash,� or something. So, so far it�s worked out pretty well.�
Dr. Robert Strang, Medical Officer of Health for the Capital District Health Authority, talks about the risks of falling into the Northwest Arm.
�Although it�s low, there is some risk of bacterial and viral infection from contact with the water during the sailing lessons�the most common thing is there�s a number of bacteria that could cause eye, ear, skin infections. If you drank or swallowed the water you could get some gastrointestinal infections, and there�s some potential for some more serious [illnesses], like Hepatitis A, which can be passed through sewage, and that can be serious.�
While contact with the Northwest Arm water can make you sick now, Tony Blouin, Manager of Environmental Policy at the HRM Harbour Solutions Project Office, says that in the future, this will not be the case.
"Basically, as soon as the Chain Rock outfall at Point Pleasant Park is relocated, that would do quite a bit for cleaning up the Arm, just to begin with. Because, other than that right now, the only other sewage that ever gets into the Arm is through storm water overflows�
Construction on the sewage treatment plant that will serve areas feeding the Arm is slated to begin this spring, and will take until 2005 to complete.
�That�s the one that will probably have the most impact on recreation on the Halifax side [of the harbour], certainly with the Northwest Arm. Part of that plant involves taking the raw sewage outfall that�s at the mouth of the arm right now, and bringing it across to the harbour side of the peninsula, and then attaching that to the plant, so that would take the main raw sewage outfall out of the Northwest Arm.�
The Halifax Regional Municipality projects that by 2041, the levels of bacteria that are caused by the sewage outflow will no longer be a hazard for users of the Arm. This date is over 35 years away, but by then you may be able to swim freely in the Arm without the risk of getting sick from the fecal coliform bacteria that pollutes the water.
�The only instances were you might not want to [go in the arm] would be maybe right after a major rainfall event when you�re getting those overflows,� says Blouin.
�For most of the year, particularly in the summer period, when most people are using the Arm, that�s when you typically get dryer weather, so there would be very few events I would think that would have any impact on swimming or contact use of the Arm.�