Harbour beaches closed again thanks to sewage overflow
Posted Aug 6, 2010 05:35:50 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The city isn’t recommending anyone else take a dip in the harbour for the next few days – in fact, the harbour beaches have been closed to the public.
Earlier this week heavy rains forced an overflow at the Halifax wastewater treatment plant, causing sewage to spill into the harbour and causing elevated levels of fecal coliform bacteria.
The treatment plant isn’t equipped to handle both sewage effluent and stormwater surges, which is what leads to the raw sewage overflow.
Halifax Water General Manager Carl Yates tells CTV there’s a way to avoid this problem, but it’s not being used in halifax – yet
“During those real high-peak events, we can offload that flow into a storage tank and then when the storm abates, we can then discharge from the tank back into the treatment plant and treat the effluent.”
New federal wastewater regulations could mean the treatment plants will have to be retrofitted with upgrades to stop the overflow problem.
Levels of coliform bacteria will need to test below acceptable levels for three consecutive days before the Black Rock and Dingle beaches can be re-opened.
