Shediac residents left in the dark after malfunction at sewage pumping station

CTV Atlantic: Sewage concerns in Shediac There's concern in Shediac after a malfunction at a lift station pumped untreated wastewater into Shediac Bay. CTV’s Cami Kepke explains.

It's been nearly a month since a lift station pumped 795 cubic meters of untreated wastewater into the Shediac Bay as a result of detector equipment failing to activate pumps.

The Greater Shediac Sewerage Commission says it was a quick fix, but residents aren't happy to be finding out about it weeks later.

“Why wait over 20 days to advise the public when apparently, according to one of the reports, the fix was done very quickly because it was not a big fix putting that third censor in there,” says Arthur Melanson of the clean water advocacy group Red Dot Association.

The commission has since added an additional alarm system at all of its 24 lift stations because of the incident.

"Once discovered by staff and corrected, immediate steps were taken to repair the equipment,” the Greater Shediac Sewerage Commission said in a statement.

“In accordance with the Clean Environment Act, a report was sent to the New Brunswick Department of Environment and local government as well as other agencies."

The Department of Environment says it was on site later that day checking for potential nutrient overload and pathogen transmission.

"These types of events are not common,” spokesperson Marc Andre Chiasson said in a statement. “However, mechanical systems do malfunction from time-to-time. I would estimate that we would have an average of six to eight cases per year."

The province says it does not expect to see any long-term implications from the spill, but the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans immediately issued an order prohibiting the harvest of shellfish from a portion of the bay. That ban was lifted Thursday, the same day the press release was sent to local media

“If it's not even on the website and I don't know how many people go on the website, it would never have been known,” says Melanson. “Is that intentional? If media hadn't picked up on it, we never would have known about it.”

While residents are happy action was taken quickly, they hope to be kept in the loop next time a similar event happens.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Cami Kepke.