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Halifax Harbour Water Quality Sampling Program

 

Positive effects of sewage treatment - Click Here

 

A Final Summary Report for the overall Halifax Harbour Water Quality Sampling Program 2004-2010 is available:

As a condition of approval for the Harbour Solutions Project under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, HRM undertook a water quality sampling program for Halifax Harbour.  Between June 2004 and September 2006, weekly samples were collected for fecal coliform bacterial analysis, and bi-weekly samples for more extensive chemical analyses.  Beginning October 2006, sampling was bi-weekly for both bacteria and chemistry, and monthly in 2010.  Samples were collected at the surface and at 10-meter depths.  Regular sampling locations are shown on the map below.

Click on the Map for a larger version

Halifax Inlet Station Locations

The program began in June of 2004, and was scheduled to run until at least 2009, at which point it was anticipated that all three of the new Harbour Solutions sewage treatment plants would be built and operating.  There were some delays in commissioning the Herring Cove plant, and the Halifax plant was affected by a flood in January 2009, so the sampling program was suspended in June of 2009.  It resumed as the Halifax and Herring Cove plants approached fully operational status, in May 2010.  The purpose of the program was to assess whether the defined water quality objectives for the Harbour are met with sewage treatment in place.  As of June 2010, all three plants were fully operational.

Data Reports 2004 - 2010 Click Here

 

More information on the sampling program and results is contained in the quarterly reports, which describe the data for three-month intervals.

Quarter # Dates Included File Size
Report Q1 June 23 - Sept. 14, 2004 PDF 0.4MB
Report Q2 Sept. 22 - Dec. 14, 2004 PDF 1.0MB
Report Q3 Dec. 21 - Mar. 15, 2005 PDF 2.7MB
Report Q4 Mar. 22 - June 14, 2005 PDF 2.6MB
  > Q4 includes Year 1 Summary  
Report Q5 June 21 - Sept. 14, 2005 PDF 2.3MB
Report Q6 Sept. 20 - Dec. 13, 2005 PDF 3.7MB
Report Q7 Dec. 20, 2005 - Mar. 14, 2006 PDF 2.1MB
Report Q8 Mar. 21, 2006 - June 13, 2006 PDF 5.6MB
  > Q8 includes Year 2 Summary  
Report Q9 June 21, 2006 - Sept. 13, 2006 PDF 2.3MB
Report Q10 Sept. 26, 2006 - Dec. 5, 2006 PDF 2.4MB
Report Q11 Dec. 20, 2006 - March 13, 2007 PDF 2.0MB
Report Q12 March 28 - June 19, 2007 PDF 8.7MB
  > Q12 includes Year 3 Summary  
Report Q13 July 4 - Sept. 12, 2007 PDF 3.6MB
Report Q14 Sept. 25 - Dec. 17, 2007 PDF 2.9MB
Report Q15 Jan. 3 - March 11, 2008 PDF 2.4MB
Report Q16 April - June, 2008 PDF 11MB
  > Q16 includes Year 4 Summary  
Report Q17 July 2 - Sept. 9, 2008 PDF 2.2MB
Report Q18 Sept. 23 - Dec. 17, 2008 PDF 2.1MB
Report Q19 Dec. 29, 2008 - March 11, 2009 PDF 2.4MB
Report Q20 March 25 - June 15, 2009 PDF 8.5MB
  > Q20 includes Year 5 Summary  

Additional sampling was done in 2010 following recovery of the Halifax plant.

Final Summary Report         2004-2010 PDF 3.3MB
> Final Summary includes 2010 data

 

Sediment chemistry data is also available for beach locations (PDF, 86KB).