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For centuries, the Mi’kmaq community of Pictou Landing First Nation used a tidal estuary in Nova Scotia for refuge, recreation, fishing hunting and gathering. They called it A’se’k, which means “over there” or “the other room.” They relied on this estuary for their well-being. Non-native people call this 156-hectare saltwater habitat “Boat Harbour.”
In the mid-1960s, the provincial government built the Boat Harbour Effluent Treatment Facility to create jobs. The facility treated waste from a paper mill and other industries.
The government promised the community they would still have access to their homeland resources. But the facility’s wastewater treatment basin blocked the estuary’s connection to the ocean. Much of the community’s land use was lost, and the estuary filled with brown, foamy, putrid-smelling wastewater. Residents reported respiratory and skin problems and elevated cancer rates as a result.
Feeling betrayed, Indigenous representatives protested with fishers and conservationists. Some call Pictou Landing Canada’s worst case of environmental racism.
When a pipeline ruptured in 2014, it spilled 47 million litres of toxic wastewater into an Indigenous burial ground on the East River shore. That prompted the government to take needed steps to return A’se’k to a tidal estuary. In 2020, the treatment facility stopped taking in new waste.
One problem stood in the way: one million cubic metres of contaminated sludge and sediment in the water.
Much of this material contains dioxins and furans, which are toxic and carcinogenic at elevated concentrations. Testing also found cadmium, mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, petroleum hydrocarbons and zinc.
Together with the Province of Nova Scotia and the Pictou Landing First Nation, we planned and designed remediation to return the harbour to a tidal estuary and reconnect the community to the land and waters.
Our biggest challenge was how to remove the sediment safely and cost-effectively without creating a lot of waste or spreading contaminants. Here’s how we approached it:
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