Major Pollution at the Headwaters of Three Major Nova Scotia Rivers?  

A short  amateur video clip shows us the sewer water that runs in a public ditch on the Hilltown road.Department of Health authorites were formally notified of this on July 28th., and responded by delegating the  Department of Environment to investigate as their 'agents'.
I was informed that the medical officer designated to deal with my complaint would be Dr. Richard Gould, and in the same letter told that he would be out of the office for the month of August.
 Hey! What's that smell?

youtube video  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDE9tH10F6g

Freedom of information requests  made through their lawyer by Dr.Allan and Debbie Hall  produced some very interesting reading
and insight into  how our Department of Agriculture manages to deflect legal action against the Fur Farm Industry of Nova Scotia.
Referring to a simple table outlining his own farm management ratings,  local Digby county agricultural representative Dennis Moerman obviously approved of the manure and runoff practices he had assessed on 38 farms that he referred to as being on the Wentworth River System.( DoA documents don't call it the Tusket River watershed ,and avoid the word 'pollution'.)
"From the above table", he said,"it is clear that producers in the watershed are managing manure and runoff well".
Under the "runoff"category,he rated 4 farms as Good, 32 farms as acceptable, and one as needing improvement.
On the assessment form  Hillsdale Fur Farm Ltd. was rated acceptable with "Runoff filtered through woods-no streams and lakes in close proximity". But witnesses observing  from the roadway would argue with Mr Moerman's rosy outlook.
Go to  civic address #981 Hilltown Road, drive about 100 meters south , and do your own rating of  this 'acceptable ' runoff as it leaches  down into a public ditch, drains through a road culvert, and gets "filtered through woods"................
The mink farm involved is one of 38 known farms at the headwaters of the Tusket River Watershed, most of  which are listed as filtered through something...a swampy area,a wet pasture,a marshy area,a low area,a naturally marshy pasture,through scrub brush,a natural wetland that flows into Porcupine Lake, a gravel pit, a grass strip,and in two cases 'seeps into ground'. 
Most mink farms practice open air manure management, but rarely do you have an opportunity to observe the outflow of effluent that leaches away from large operations like this.981 Hilltown Road is clearly visible from the highway, giving the public a rare chance to actually witness the pollution.. All but a few farms allow their  manure  to drop from the mink directly onto open ground and few take steps to prevent leaching of nutrients to the waterways by dissolution through rainwater,snow, morning dew,and  urine. 
Government professionals  working for the Department of Environment , Fisheries, Natural Resources and  Department of Health have been demoralized  by backroom political decisions to promote the profitable mink farm industry....at the expense of thousands of voters in western Nova Scotia. ...and at great loss to environment and property .
 
Wonder why our water smells? Because unacceptable levels of bacteria are feeding on unacceptable levels of nutrients and suspended animal matter ..Wonder why the river water is so dark?  Because it's a sewer.Wonder why you can't  safely take your children swimming in the west Tusket river,Lake Vaughn, or Wentworth lake any more? Because  ugly green cyanobacteria dominates the core lakes and rivers downstream from those mink farms . Three river systems are being polluted,and Halifax is in denial.
Wonder why this wealthy industry is still polluting our waterways? Because  the Department of Agriculture approves these environmentally hazardous manure practices as ACCEPTABLE, stonewalls protective legal action by its own agencies,and  is actively engaged in  a serious propaganda campaign  to try and muffle a growing public outcry.
Wonder why Halifax has done nothing to protect the victims of this man-made disaster? I wonder too. I have no idea how a government can be so callous and indifferent to this serious health hazard.  Matter of fact, I can't understand why every window in the political constituency of Yarmouth doesn't have a sign in it which reads: STOP THE POLLUTION.
       Something inside this old river rat boils over when I hear an educated and well informed farmer named John MacDonnel say:"There is no scientific proof that mink farms are polluting the waterways." 
 
It's a turning point in our local history, and the younger folks may live to remember the point in time when we allowed our government to sell our  God given right to clean water..... for a handful of  very smelly dollars.
 
John Halley Horton
Halleyhort@hotmail.com
your comments and criticisms are appreciated
 
 
 
 

Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 06:34:27 -0700

April fools day, Nowlans Lake, Digby County. A runoff pipe carries 'undesirable' water  directly to the shoreline from the Mullen mink farm at Havelock.
Department of Environment officials recently investigated this farm for allegations of pollution.. a stinkpipe just around the corner of the fence shown here.Apparently they didn't notice this pipe?
Doesn't Digby County have  setback by-laws in place to prevent such blatant manure-leaching right next to the waterline .?

It's time somebody said this out loud:OUR DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT IS A SHAM!
Our municipal councils have traded away the people's water rights , and our federal representatives have shown their approval by remaining completely silent on this subject. There's a trail of deals all the way back to the  federal stimulus program, obligations have been made,it's the Department of Agriculture that will pass out the dollars. And what about the people who live in the Tusket River Basin? We get an overall loss in housing values for the area,serious health issues that have not even been addressed yet,repercussions for commercial fisheries in the Tusket Islands, losses to tourism and  local reputation for "good water",future implications for water supply and water quality throughout the area,and we get the dirtiest river in the area...100 km of cyanobacteria, a luminescent green monument to man's stupidity and greed. 

You have to feel sorry for Darrell Dexter.. He inherited this mess  about a year ago.
But he will have to face up to the facts  here...this is MAJOR POLLUTION, and it needs to be fixed.

Walk a mile in our shoes, Mr. Dexter., and don't slip in that brown runny stuff.

John Horton

“We have lost touch with our biological and ecological base more than any other civilization in the past. This separation manifests itself in a striking disparity between the development of intellectual power, scientific knowledge and technological skills, on the one hand; and of wisdom, spirituality and ethics on the other.”  (The Turning Point, Fritjof Capra) 

TO: CLARE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL & SIGNIFICANT OTHERS
Re: Mink Farming Pollution

Dear Members of Clare Municipal Council,

The following photos and others I've viewed speak more than a thousand words, but I am compelled to offer a few more ... 
Aside from the profound environmental impact this unconscionable neglect of responsibility has caused, I am very concerned about the profound impact this will have on the solid reputation and "good neighbour" relations Clare has enjoyed for many years within our region.

I have, over the past 25 years, been engaged as a volunteer and community partner in many exemplary projects and activities with various organizations and was a founding and long-term member of Enviro-Clare and the Clare Community Health Board. I have also been a member of several provincial and regional organizations where I advanced, with great pride, the unprecedented capacity and strength of the people of Clare. I never counted the hours I gave; but, instead, counted my blessings to be part a community whose values reflected the common good of all. The preamble to the original Clare health plan, submitted in 1997 to the Western Regional Health Board, states that "The Clare Community Health Board recognizes the people of Clare as our single most valuable resource and is committed to building and strengthening partnerships to achieve our goals."  This is how we are known by many inside and OUTSIDE of our municipal boundaries. I am sorry to say that Council has not always measured up to that accolade.

I can't express how appalled and disappointed I am that this gross pollution situation has been allowed to spread to the extent that is has, or that resources were put in place to enable it to go unchallenged. I expect all levels of government to be accountable, not only for practical decision making but also for ethical leadership and inscrutable example setting. We all settle for far less, to the detriment of our collective well-being and potential to do (and be) better citizens of the world..

Also, there is no logic or rationale for broadcasting the equation that jobs and environmental stewardship are mutually exclusive domains, unable to be reconciled. That statement is both a falsehood and an absurd denial of the basic survival needs of all life. Did we learn nothing from the tin mine, Irving Woodlands or the Digby quarry proponents about the eventual outcome of such blindsided thinking? 

As a community member, I do not feel proud to be associated with this fiasco and dread that it will lead to hostilities; perhaps even violence. There is no "us and them" here; nor is there any benefit in creating enemies among our neighbours.  If we are to survive the possible tough economic times burgeoning on the horizon, we must sustain friendship and remain cooperative with our neighbours--those who share our destiny as dwellers of small rural communities. I know and have great regard for the members of TREPA, some of whom devoted half their lifetime to cleaning up and protecting the Beautiful Tusket River. I am ashamed to face any one of them if I do not include them as equally deserving of consideration in Clare Council's course of action.

Please wake up and do the right thing here!! Engage communication with those who are clamoring for solutions and acknowledgment that this is a BIG PROBLEM that isn't going to go away! The cost of dealing with it is only going to keep rising-- as will the level of damage. I recognize the difficulty of doing what's right, but you chose to be where you are and must NOW act accordingly!

In closing I would like to share an excerpt from an article I wrote about community process for the Canadian Institute for Health Information:

"If there were a measuring rod for the ripple effects of all the acts of kindness and caring that a community and its members bestow on any given day, Clare would be visible way beyond its civic boundaries. And, its people rise as readily to face adversity as they do to celebrate their accomplishments, manifesting the genetic imprint of those whose love of community and will to survive still tell the greatest success story. Vive l’Acadie!"

With great respect for my  community and ALL its members, and the faith that peace with others is both a worthwhile and possible best outcome,
Trudy Bengivenni

See attached pictures  (Link)

From: John Horton <halleyhort@hotmail.com> 
Subject: FW: !@#$%MINKSTINKBULLPUCKY 
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:53:27 -0800 

                That's Not Minkstink, ....That's  BULLPUCKY

In my short lifetime I have witnessed the pollution  and eutrophication of a beautiful stretch of  river..the west branch of the Tusket, from  headwaters in Digby County  right out into Lobster Bay .

You could drink that water when I was a kid.

In the last few years the mink industry has burgeoned ,surpassing  one million pelts per season, and most of their effluent drains to our waterways because they simply leave their poop outdoors. Feces and urine lay on the ground  and leech away constantly towards waterways of the headwaters .To my knowledge , no polluter has ever been charged . Certainly since whistleblowers started writing in about abuses, no  major government announcements have  been made. And  nothing is about to happen.

While  large  mink farms constantly leach their nutrient/manure/effluent through destructive management practices, most  simply have not been willing to protect the public waterways . The Tusket River has become  a free natural disposal field that drains and carries away large volumes of their biochemical fallout. It is  MAJOR  POLLUTION ,yet  there are vested interests who would deny this.  There are also people who deny global warming.

Recently when the Yarmouth Municipal Council voted to set back their controversial "fur Line" to 500 ft.,our Department of Agriculture  lined up to appeal.. 
So I am concerned about our Department of Agriculture, who have acted throughout this as if they would sooner strengthen a fur industry than keep the environment healthy.

You could drink from the Tusket River when I was a kid.
The PEOPLE  DOWNSTREAM  are angry.
The PEOPLE DOWNSTREAM have been victimized.
The PEOPLE DOWNSTREAM  have been neglected by Department of Fisheries, Department of Health, Environment, Agriculture , Natural Resources.  They have all been passing the buck; they all have been looking away from an environmental disaster.  They all have a mandate to act to protect . They all have legislation to act under. 

 There have been no significant  announcements in the media  , but here's what is coming.

FIXING THE PROBLEM. .....Our Department of Agriculture  has been given this monumental task, and have laid out a timetable by which voluntary farm  management guidelines are being offered to farmers such as the mink farmers in digby county.
 .. that will solve it before 2020.....

HONEST, I'M NOT KIDDING .and when we ask  what our government is going to do about the green slime in the Tusket Toilet, that is the answer: a voluntary manure management guideline program for mink farmers. 

 You could drink that water back then, without the bullshit. 

 johnhortonhalleyhort@hotmail.com
 
 

ANGRY OLD MAN  says: Mink farms  are poisoning my river and you don't need any  @#$#$%^%^&*degree in Environmental Science to see it.
John Halley Horton
halleyhort@hotmail.com

Want my prediction for the future of the Tusket River?
It's not pretty.
Now that people are really angry, and the extent of damage done by pollution is obvious, we can expect immediate government action. Right?
Wrong. Unless "we the people" become politically aggresive ,  I predict our provincial government will say and do nothing while they get their ducks in a row and public anger dies down. Then there will be several years of 'study',  while  the mink farming business  goes on as usual.     When voters' anger becomes overwhelming, legislators will pass laws requiring new mink farms to build to a watered- down code, with  minimum legislation and voluntary guidelines applying to all "grandfathered " mink farms.

          On the other hand  if government action was forthcoming, you would hear announcements  about it in a media blitz.
Take a listen............ That is the sound of silence.
Can anybody name a politician who is being verbal ,taking a stand and talking out loud to the media about fixing this  problem....?????
Wouldn't you think that any normal politician would be all over this issue, getting in lots of politically-valuable photo-op time?

I don't get it! What are they hiding, I wonder?

!@#$%^&%^&*   MINKSTINK  Nov. 1st/09

Businesspeople in a normal world would probably marvel at an industry where they would have complete freedom to pollute, with  little concern for political kickback. 
In effect, that would encourage a lot of neglect.
.
   Mink farmers in Nova Scotia are allowing wastewater to leach into watercourses that make up our major river systems .They  spend nothing at all to hold back  the leachant from  open-air manure management of millions of mink .Only a  few mink farms have  containment ponds, drainage ,or even the most basic treatment of their effluent.. For the most part , leaching of urine and manure out in the open is standard practice.

Only a few mink farms drain,collect, and store urine separately,or spend the money on concrete to contain drainage  Common practice is that all waste from mink drops to the open earth,where it soaks in, or dissolves into the rainwater .....While manure collection is carried out periodically, little action is taken on overall farm drainage.

 Effluent  simply drains downhill into the nearest ditch,brook, stream,river or lake.
ONE MILLION MINK are leaching into our western Nova Scotia rivers because our mink farmers haven't  spent the money to protect our waterways from their pollution.  It has become common practice that illegal stinkpipes and trenches  drain  the downhill side of minkfarms away from the property.
Mink farms use a lot of water , because there are a million mouths to feed.Huge volumes of fish waste from local sources are consumed daily , and a lot of waste goes to waste..Too often what runs out of an animal runs back into public waterways untreated .............  like nobody knew better  .......

When you tour" Hilltown Heights", I know one spot  you can stand  on  a public road and watch as a gray liquid drains out of a swampy area and runs through a road culvert 
underneath your feet.The smell is worst in summer,but bad all year .  Upstream is the outside  edge of a hillside mink farmyard . Underneath the green vegetation that has grown up is a large volume of rotting material. The effluent that drains away from this hill will carry downstream all the way to the ocean at Tusket .That cloudy stuff in the water will probably settle somewhere on the bottom of the   stream , or the river , or the lake downstream.This is vile stuff, leaching into a public waterway untreated. You don't need a degree in Environmental Science to know that this is a crime of pollution .Yet our provincial Department of Environment has refused to investigate it because they say they need to have a "point source".......
I would venture that if this smell came from a ditch outside Darrell Dexter's residence, there would be an investigation and charges would be laid, "point source" or not.
 

Simple Basic Affordable Water Treatment

Everyday household  septic tank runoff  is often quite clear , but it is physically saturated with water-soluble  nutrients .We remove these  "fertilizing" nitrates and phosphates  from solution before returning them to nature by dispersing the liquid over a so-called septic field. This network of perforated plastic pipe is laid  out over an      environmentally-friendly  crushed rock and soil medium that allows a completely natural breakdown and containment of N,K,and P.
  So there  should be no leakage of any excess "fertility" from a government-approved septic system.Right?
 And  aren't country homes in Nova Scotia required to  have a septic tank and septic field?

How about mink farms? I seems they have been exempted from the same rules that apply to human waste. Instead ,Mink Farms of Nova Scotia  have been using  our public waterways for years as their   FREE EFFLUENT DISPOSAL SYSTEM
The west branch of the Tusket river is being used as a sewer , carrying away the  wastewater  of  a million mink annually.
Not only are we allowing this disaster to happen, but we are subsidizing the building of more mink farms with our tax dollars.
What action is being taken by our government agencies?
They are studying it, and yes, the Department of Agriculture has issued voluntary guidelines for mink farmers to follow...... if they want to. 

PHEW!  Hey, great ! They're on it.

John H

When will they ever learn?? ...

Province: Mink farm meets requirements 

By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau
Sat. Oct 24 - 4:46 AM

[A soggy mink slinks around the ground near Pier 23 in Halifax in 2003. Agriculture Department officials are reassuring a citizens committee that a mink farm being built near the Clyde River should not cause problems. (Tim Krochak / Staff)<BR>]
A soggy mink slinks around the ground near Pier 23 in Halifax in 2003. Agriculture Department officials are reassuring a citizens committee that a mink farm being built near the Clyde River should not cause problems. (Tim Krochak / Staff)

A mink farm being built near Shelburne County’s Clyde River should not bother locals, senior Agriculture Department officials have told a citizens committee.
The 120-hectare site is off Highway 103, in what locals say is a bog that drains into Little Goose Creek, which in turn, empties into the Clyde River, said Lee Keating, a member of the Clyde River Land Use Committee.

Some of his committee members were visited by deputy agriculture minister Paul LaFleche and other staffers recently. The government men also inspected the mink ranch under construction.

"The farm as it exists now complies with all their requirements, so they were prepared to go ahead and grant it a permit to have animals," Mr. Keating said the deputy minister told him.
The department described it as a modern facility which should not cause any problems for local people, he said.
"We’ll see about that. I hope (the department) is right," Mr. Keating said recently. "Only time will tell."

Baseline water tests of Little Goose Creek have been done by the provincial Environment and Agriculture departments.
"They’ve given us an assurance that they will continue to monitor that water quality to be sure that nothing escapes from the mink farm into Little Goose Creek and subsequently into the Clyde River," Mr. Keating said.check this out.Does anybody believe this? ... that "nothing escapes  ..."  ?  nothing escapes????

That statement can only mean that  water soluble nutrients wil be removed from solution.....ie the water would be treated  to remove the heavy concentrations of nutrients.This costs money and  requires more than just running the effluent through a series of ponds. ... Frankly, I don't believe they intend to do this. And unless they do, this claim can only be false  and intentionally misleading.........John Horton
 

testing to just the government, the group contacted a graduate student at Dalhousie University who has agreed to conduct independent water quality testing.
"This is part of his university studies," said Mr. Keating. "This gives us an independent evaluation as well." good idea , Lee.
Residents are worried that waste lagoons may allow contaminants to escape.
Excrement and urine from thousands of mink will go into a series of settling ponds, he said.
"It won’t take long for them to start getting to the point where . . . heavy rains can spill (contents) over the top."
Mr. Keating said he’s glad Barrington municipal council is now revamping its policy on land transfers and also on public notification of any transfer, lease or sale of public land.
"It doesn’t do anything for us at this point," he said. "If public notification had been in place when this proposal for the mink farm was first discussed . . . it would have been very unlikely that the farm would have been established there."
On April 10, 2006, a motion carried 6 to 1 that council sell 120 hectares of public land near Clyde River for industrial development. The mink farm resulted.
( bmedel@herald.ca)
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