Parlee Beach residents and cottage owners met with government staff and health officials on Saturday to learn more about what the province is doing to improve and monitor water quality in the area.
Approximately 150 people attended the open house, which was held just a day after the province released a report on the water quality of the beach, vowing to implement 14 recommendations outlined in the steering committee’s report — such as developing a tool for predicting water quality in a more timely way and investigating if on-site sewage disposal systems are a source of bacteria.
READ MORE: Water quality at Parlee Beach ‘very good’ 95 per cent of the time: report
Pointe-du-Chêne resident Janet Gordon attended the open house and said several things in the report such as there being multiple possible sources and reasons causing bacteria doesn’t come as a surprise.
“I don’t think this one year of low bacteria count should lead to a false assurance because looking back at the results over at least the past six years and longer the samples have shown that the bacterial counts were high for probably more than half of the days that samples were taken, so they question whether it’s low rain fall over the past season, but I don’t think we can believe that the problems resolved,” Gordon said.
Gordon said that’s why she thinks it’s good the government will adopt the recommendations and continue to address the issue.
READ MORE: New Brunswick provides update on Parlee, Murray beaches projects, upgrades to wastewater
“I think the fact that they’re looking at septic systems is reassuring and continuing to make all the improvement in the sewage system,” Gordon said. “I think one thing that concerns me is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of strong words about the management of storm water run-off.”
She said research done previously by members of Mount Allison University identified storm water as the likely cause of the pollution, as does the province’s new report, but said she’d like some “stronger action” on it.
“I think one thing we know right now is that an important protection against storm water run-off is preserving green spaces so whenever it rains the soil and the vegetation can absorb that water and it doesn’t run-off into the bay carrying the bacteria from animals, the chemical pollutants, the petroleum products,” Gordon said.
Red Dot Association secretary and area resident Brenda Ryan was one of several members of the group concerned over water quality in attendance.
“I’d like to commend the Minister and the staff for doing a whole lot of work in the last year and ahalf,” Ryan said. “It’s very good work and I’m very happy to see that Parlee Beach is getting the attention it deserves and action is being taken to clean up the beach.”
She said it’s important for a variety of reasons, including public health and tourism.
Ryan said the province is at a better point now than in 2000 when there was an investigation into the water quality and the province was about to adopt the national standards for water quality testing. The government, however, developed a “home grown system” that she said didn’t inform the public well enough about the risks of bacteria in the water.
“So now we’re further ahead than we were 20 years ago because we have the Canadian guidelines adopted and implemented,” Ryan said.
Ryan expressed concerns over ensuring the public stays informed about possible public health issues related to bacteria levels. She said she hopes it doesn’t take a back seat to tourism like she said she believes it did in the past.
“In terms of accountability I think there should be a deadline for all the additional work and continuing work that the government has to do to make sure that Parlee Beach actually achieves a high quality water quality standard,” Ryan said.
Cristin Muecke, New Brunswick’s deputy chief medical officer of health, was in attendance Saturday speaking with concerned citizens.
Muecke said the open house was scheduled to provide people with information from the report and that it was an opportunity for people to get clarification on anything in the document.
“People are concerned about the water quality,” Muecke said. “They want to be reassured that the water quality is good at Parlee Beach. They also want to know what are the chances that this is going to impact them this season. They want to know if there’s more data being collected and they’re really just looking for a chance to have a conversation.”
She said she wants to make sure people know that the government is paying close attention to the water quality at Parlee Beach, and reiterated that the information gathered to date indicates the water is safe and the quality is “very good.”
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