Sewage leaked into the LaHave River after overflowing occurred at one of the towns pump stations. Photo: CKBW File
A valve failure on one of Bridgewater’s sewage lines in December resulted in sewage running into the LaHave River.
Mayor David Mitchell says as one station overflowed water was redirected to pump stations three and four as was necessary for repairs to be done.
“When the flow was redirected it caused some overflowing at station four and as they are older systems they were designed to overflow into the river,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell took to Facebook to inform the public of the incident as he felt it was something the municipality was accountable for.
In his post he says that all the necessary regulatory bodies were notified of the incident and work is now underway to understand the scope of the leak.
Council approved emergency funding to fix the issues at the latest council meeting as well they replaced the type of valve that failed at the other pump stations as a precaution.
The incident also points to the need for an overhaul of the town’s water systems which Mitchell is well aware of.
He says that Bridgewater like all communities in Canada are required by the Federal government to update their water systems to ensure overflow designs do not dump sewage into local waterways.
“For Bridgewater to reach compliance it will take $50 million dollars and right now we don’t know where that will come from.”
Ultimately, Mitchell says some of the burden will be put on local taxpayers, “We plan for the worst, so although we will apply for federal and provincial funding none of that is guaranteed.”
Currently, it is unknown how much sewage leaked into the river but subsequent studies on the incident may reveal that in the future.
