Howorth Acres calls on N.B. to fix sewer system
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 | 12:25 AM AT
CBC News
N.B. Environment Minister Rick Miles said the province will not step in until after the court date. (CBC)Residents of a subdivision in Beaver Dam, N.B., say they want the province to step in and fix their sewage system while the standoff continues between the government and the owner of the waste treatment system.
Michelle Smith, who lives in the Howorth Acres subdivision, said she has paid more than $9,300 to repair sewage problems that were not hers.
"As part of that sewage connection there's a lateral line that comes out and it goes just underneath of the ditch and connects to the manhole," she said, pointing to her property. "We had to put back-flow valves on there even though the problem was not our problem."
Smith said she and other homeowners in the community have been paying $400 a year to Howorth Waste Services Inc. — the owner of a nearby sewage lagoon — for access to that lagoon.
Howorth Waste Services also operates the wastewater collection and treatment system in the subdivision.
Smith said the sewer lines that drain into the lagoon were not being serviced and her home has been flooded repeatedly.
"The sewer line itself had not been flushed in over 30 years," she said. "We had 30 years of buildup. It had never been cleaned, never been taken care of.
"As a result, when that line blocked, everything that came in ended up in my basement."
Smith and other homeowners want the provincial government to fix the sewage system before February, when the owner of Howorth Waste Services, Calvin Thompson, has a court date.
Thompson has pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to comply with a term or condition to operate under the provincial Clean Environment Act.
Progressive Conservative MLA Jack Carr, whose electoral district of Maryland-Sunbury West includes Beaver Dam, called for the government to take ownership of the waste treatment system.
"Residents here in Howorth Acres are saying they want to be part of the solution," he said.
Carr said the Department of Environment is managing the sewage systems in 10 communities across the province, and another 20 have situations similar to Howorth Acres.
"It's on the borderline of being abandoned," he said.
Environment Minister Rick Miles said the province will not step in until after the waste-management company has its day in court.
"That owner has a moral obligation and a legal obligation, as far as we're concerned, to operate that system for which he's been paid money," he said. "The Department of the Environment is the regulator. We don't want to get into the habit of owning these facilities. We're not set up to own facilities."
