'It was a mistake': Trenton mayor says town has learned from sewage leak

The Town of Trenton, N.S., has been fined $100,000 and must abide by certain conditions after raw sewage was discharged into a brook.

A news release issued Friday by Environment and Climate Change Canada says the town pleaded guilty at Pictou provincial court to one count of violating the Fisheries Act.

An Environment and Climate Change Canada investigation found that raw sewage was discharged into Lowden Brook for roughly seven months, beginning in June 2019 and ending in early January 2020.

The brook is a tributary to the East River, which supports populations of speckled trout, brown trout and Atlantic salmon, according to the release.

An inspection by enforcement officers on Nov. 13, 2019, located an outfall releasing what they believed to be raw sewage. This outfall was connected to the town's municipal infrastructure, says the news release.

Lab results found high levels of E. coli at the outfall and culvert. The effluent was also toxic to fish, the release states.

"It was a mistake and we learned from it," Mayor Donald Hussher said in an interview. "And that's the biggest thing about mistakes, that you learn from it and you move forward."

He said the incident stemmed from a leak, rather than someone intentionally dumping raw sewage.

Sentencing conditions

Because of the conviction, the town will be added to the federal environmental offenders registry.

Other sentencing conditions include:

• Training on the Fisheries Act and its requirements.
• Training on effluent sampling protocol for town employees and contractors.
• Publishing information about the incident and sentencing on the town's website.

Hussher said the town is preparing information to distribute about the incident through a newsletter and will be posting information to its website soon.

'It's a lot of money to absorb,' says mayor

According to financial statements posted on the town's website, its annual expenditures are about $5 million, meaning the fine will work out to about two per cent of their spending.

"It's a lot of money to absorb," said Hussher.

He said the town is working to ensure the fine doesn't affect citizens in a negative way and said they have three years to pay it.

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