Extension granted for Boat Harbour environmental assessment process

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada has extended the three-year time limit for Nova Scotia Lands Inc. to provide the information or studies for the project’s environmental assessment, as described in the final Environmental Impact Statement Guidelines, by another two years.

The new deadline is Aug. 28, 2024.

Nova Scotia Lands had requested the extension due to the ongoing information requests it is receiving from the IAAC.

Ken Swain, project lead for the Boat Harbour Remediation, recently told the SaltWire Network that in 2021 alone, they had 82 separate information requests relating to the project and had addressed 81. There is one outstanding which he said they are addressing now. In April 2022, they received another 23 questions.

“We’ll be submitting responses to all 23 very shortly,” Swain said.

Swain requested the extension in April 2022 on behalf of Nova Scotia Lands.

“The proponent, Nova Scotia Lands Inc., is of the opinion that we have been responding in a timely manner and are meeting the regulatory requirements of this CEAA 2012 process. We are seeking consideration of IAAC in approving a two-year extension to the legislated time limit of Aug. 28, 2022, for a time limit of Aug. 28, 2024,” Swain wrote in a letter to the agency on April 22, 2022.

Boat Harbour has been contaminated with effluent since 1967, and in 1972 a dam was built, cutting Boat Harbour off from the ocean. This turned the saltwater estuary into a freshwater lake. From that time until Northern Pulp closed in 2020, Boat Harbour received wastewater from the pulp mill at Abercrombie Point. In the early years, Canso Chemicals also used Boat Harbour to treat its wastewater.

Current plans are to restore the body of water to a tidal estuary and remove the contaminants from the bottom of the harbour.

Estimates are that the remediation work will take between four and seven years. In 2020, the estimated cost for remediation was $292 million.