Family's loss of heaven is the price of progress
Published Tuesday July 21st, 2009
Environment Lords Cove residents disappointed they weren't consulted on project that benefits area fishermen but eliminates their view and access to harbour
DEER ISLAND - On their quiet corner of Lords Cove, Glenn and Rachel Stuart could sip coffee and watch fishing boats come and go as the water lapped the shore.
Now they see a giant pile of rocks surrounding a hole that will be filled with toxic sludge dredged from the cove bottom.
"We used this cove forever," said Glenn, whose great-grandparents settled on the property in 1853. "It's destroyed access to my own harbour. It makes me sick to my stomach."
The Stuarts and other neighbours were never consulted on the $1.3-million project, which is only steps from their property.
"It's like a nightmare," said Rachel, Glenn's wife, watching another truck dump stone on the U-shaped pile from her front lawn last week. "But you keep waking up and it's still here."
The project extends the wharf, changing the landscape of the natural harbour.
Workers will dredge material from the basin, making the water deeper and allowing fishermen to park more boats in the winter months, said Harvey Millar, area director for the southwest New Brunswick region of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
The rock structure, or berm, will be filled with sludge, then turned into a parking lot.
"We worked closely with the harbour authority. This is something they actually requested," Millar said. "It's a very busy little port - approximately 55 vessels use it, and it will make more space for the boats."
Area fishermen have been fighting for the project for years, said Michael Silvaggio, president of the Deer Island Harbour Authority.
"It's hard to get any funding from the federal government," he said, outside the Fisherman's Cove Café. "It's one of the best sheltered harbours on the island. And this gives us access to parking."
He said the island has already lost two harbours, and was eager to have federal investment to improve Lords Cove.
"Every one of the fishermen wanted this," he said.
But the Stuarts say it's not the dredging that upsets them - it's what is being done with the polluted gunk and what it might do to their drinking water.
Before trash was transported off the island, people would toss their garbage into the water. A "boat graveyard" near the cove also means old batteries, oil and paint lay on the ocean floor.
"I have a pretty good idea what's down there and it's not pretty," Rachel said.
An environmental screening report says the interior of the berm will be lined with filter fabric to prevent the sludge from seeping out.
The Small Crafts Harbours Department of Fisheries and Oceans in St. George has offered to test their well water as a "baseline" for future testing.
"We have to drink that water in the meantime," said Matthew Stuart, their 23-year-old son who plans to take over the family property.
But Matthew, who knocked down a kitchen wall so he could get a better view of the cove, said he feels like his family has been taken for fools.
"I'm quite sure this wouldn't happen if we were anywhere else in the world," he said. "I'll be looking at it for the rest of my life."
Andy Lodge, a Saint John litigation lawyer who specializes in construction law, said he is surprised Fisheries and Oceans could start the project without consulting the community.
"For the neighbours not to have heard of this and not to have been consulted is just amazing," he said.
Usually a project would require an environmental assessment, which involves getting approval from neighbours, he said.
Instead, Fisheries and Oceans conducted an environmental screening.
"The results of the screening didn't require an environmental assessment, which really surprises me," Lodge said.
"No negative public concern is expected as a result of this project," the report reads. "In addition, the Harbour Authority consultation indicated that no fishermen, individuals, or groups disapprove of the proposed project."
Millar said the harbour authority has been trying to contact the Stuarts to meet with them to discuss their concerns.
"This was something the whole community has been aware of for a long time," he said. "It's not like it just happened. It's been a while."
Millar also said the workers will be following strict guidelines to ensure the material dredged from the cove basin does not contaminate the environment.
"It's not the first time for a project like this," he said. "It's done quite frequently at many harbours."
He said after the dredging work is done, and at high tide, the Stuarts will have even better access to the water.
"The project is still going ahead because we're confident we're following the right regulations and we're doing the right thing," he said. "But at the same time we're very open and we respect his concerns, and we'd like to provide him with any information he feels he needs to have."
Meanwhile, the Stuarts feel helpless as backhoes and dump trucks change their beloved cove, one truckload of stone at a time.
"It's sentimental. I learned how to row in this cove," said Matthew, pointing to the muddy space between their lawn and the sprawling berm.
"You don't realize how much you love something until it's gone."
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