News Release

Harbour Cleanup is back on track!

(Halifax, June 24, 2010) - Harbour sea life breathed a sigh of relief Thursday with news that the Halifax wastewater treatment plant is back on line once more and functioning as it should.

Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor Peter Kelly welcomed the announcement.

“This is great news for residents and visitors alike,” he said. “With all three plants of Harbour Solutions now operational, we can look forward to the cleanest water our harbour has known in generations.”

The Mayor paid tribute to residents for the support they have shown during the past 17 months of the plant’s recommissioning.

“Their patience and understanding has gone a long way in making everyone’s job easier during this difficult time,” he said.

The Mayor noted that the recommissioning of the plant was timely, given how busy the Halifax-Dartmouth waterfronts were becoming with the arrival of the tourist season and the presence this week of more than 5,000 international sailors and their ships, celebrating the Canadian navy’s 100 birthday.

The $55-million Halifax plant went down in January, 2009, after only a few weeks of operation when a power failure caused catastrophic flooding.

The facility is part of the $333-million Harbour Solutions to treat sewage before it flows into the harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world. Two other new plants - in Dartmouth and Herring Cove - have been treating sewage for some time now without incident.

Harbour Solutions is the largest capital project in the community’s history.

Mayor Kelly praised the staff of Halifax Water, D&D Construction and its subcontractors for their dedicated work in recommissioning the Halifax plant.

He added that he was looking forward to metro beaches at the Dingle and Black Rock reopening to public swimming shortly. Halifax Water staff will be monitoring water quality to check on the plant’s performance. When the Halifax plant first opened in 2009, water quality in the area achieved safe levels in about three days.

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Mayor Peter Kelly
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