News Release

HRM Removing Grubbings from Burnside Site

(Friday, August 25/06)-- HRM is having a pile of peat, which may have contributed to the recent depletion of oxygen levels in Grassy Brook, removed from the municipally-owned grubbings site in Burnside Industrial Park today.

A silt fence around the disposal site on Dorey Avenue was repaired yesterday and crews will begin taking the materials away today. It will be taken to a private landfill, which has been approved by the Nova Scotia Department of the Environment.

Grassy Brook flows from the top end of Burnside Park, through the Dartmouth Crossing development site and into Lake MicMac. It has become apparent in recent weeks that drainage from above the Dartmouth Crossing site is causing water quality problems in the stream.

One possible source could be the grubbings pile at the top of Burnside, where organic soils and peat removed from the site of the new all-weather playing field were stockpiled. Leachate washed from this pile could carry a heavy load of organic material into Grassy Brook, where it would decompose and use up the oxygen in the water.

HRM is working with the provincial Environment Department and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans to confirm the cause of the oxygen depletion and to develop a strategy to restore Grassy Brook.

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John O’Brien
Manager, Corporate Communications
490-6531