Girl's request for LaHave River cleanup awaits federal dollars

A 13-year-old Nova Scotia girl whose science project in 2015 found high levels of fecal bacteria in the LaHave River says she's disappointed the problem isn't closer to being fixed. 

Stella Bowles of Bridgewater was just 11 when she started testing the river by her home for contamination. Her findings caught the attention of the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, which decided to take action.

Last June, municipal council voted to apply for $17 million from Infrastructure Canada in order to remove the 600 or so straight pipes that dump 600,000 litres of raw sewage per day into the river.

But since then, neither Bowles nor the municipality has received word of a decision.

"I am very worried now that the federal money won't come and once again, people will stop caring about cleaning up [sewage] straight pipes," Bowles wrote on her Facebook page.

Straight pipes that allow untreated sewage to enter the environment, including watercourses, ditches or holes, are illegal in Nova Scotia.

Decision expected by spring

Alex Dumaresq, deputy CAO of the municipality, said he had expected a response from the federal government by spring.

"We didn't expect it to take this long," Dumaresq said. "We thought that we'd have an answer yes or no by now, so we're hoping that the answer will be soon."

Federal administrative staff have reviewed the application and asked questions about the project, he said.

A spokeswoman for Infrastructure Canada told CBC News in an email the funding application is under review and an update on its status should be issued soon.

Bernadette Jordan, the Liberal MP for the area, is as much in the dark as everyone else about the proposed funding.

"I often think, in my optimistic world, that no news is good news. I've been given absolutely no indication that it's not going to happen," she said. "I'm in touch with the minister's office and they say it's still working its way through the system.

"I know it's taking a little bit more time than everyone would like. Hopefully in the next little while, we'll have something to celebrate and all Stella's hard work will have paid off."

6-year plan

The project cannot go ahead as planned without the federal funding, Dumaresq said. Council had developed a six-year plan to remove the pipes and install septic systems by 2023. 

I'm a kid. I don't really care how you fix them. They're illegal and they just need to be fixed.- Stella Bowles

The delay could make it tricky to meet that goal.

"If the answer is no, then we have to go back to the drawing board," said Dumaresq.

Infrastructure Canada could not immediately provide an update on the funding request.

​Bowles's most recent tests in April once again found high levels of fecal bacteria in the water. 

"I'm disappointed no one's fixing this. Really, it's wrong," she said.

"I'm a kid. I don't really care how you fix [the straight pipes.] They're illegal and they just need to be fixed."