The Truro Daily News reports, “Treated frack water from Atlantic Industrial Services in Debert will not be flowing in the municipal sewer system.”
Committee chairperson Tom Taggart announced last night, “The Sewer Use Appeals Committee has unanimously decided to overturn the December 2014 decision of the director of Public Works to allow the discharge of treated hydraulic fracturing waste water into the sewer systems of Colchester County.”
The news article adds, “Taggart later told the Truro Daily News that approximately 30 public appeals to the earlier decision had been received by the county.”
The Council of Canadians submission – written by water campaigner Emma Lui and Atlantic organizers Angela Giles and Tori Ball – stated, “We are deeply disappointed that on December 10, 2014, Colchester County approved a proposal to treat fracking waste… In order to protect communities along the Chiganois River, the Cobequid Bay and the Bay of Fundy, we ask that the County Council scrap this risky plan.”
And it highlighted, “Given the lack of understanding of the impacts of fracking chemicals, and a desire we are certain you share to protect water sources, public health and the surrounding ecosystem, we urge the Appeals Committee to reject any plans to discharge fracking wastewater into the Chiganois River, the Cobequid Bay and the Bay of Fundy. Your decision will protect water sources and community health for generations to come.”
In a related win this past January, the county approved in principle banning the future disposal of fracking waste water into their municipal sewer system, but exempted the application that has now been rejected.
To read the Council of Canadians submission to the Sewer Use Appeals Committee, please click here.
Further reading
Sipekne’katik oppose dumping of fracking wastewater in Colchester County (December 2014 blog)
Feds missing in fracking wastewater debate (December 2014 blog by Emma Lui)
