INVERNESS, N.S. — Inverness is the happiest place in Nova Scotia but the scenic seaside hamlet could become known as one the smelliest if it doesn’t get a new sewage treatment plant.
For nearly two months this summer, residents and tourists were forced to stay indoors with the windows closed after the community’s malfunctioning and overburdened treatment plant and lagoon sent the stench of raw sewage wafting through town. The Nova Scotia Department of Environment eventually closed a large portion of Inverness’s iconic 1.5-kilometre beach after tests showed elevated levels of the bacteria enterococci.
Now Inverness Development Association president Rose Mary MacDonald says she’s worried that they may have to endure another smelly summer unless the provincial and federal governments fast-track construction of a new sewage treatment facility.
The association held a public rally that drew more than 200 people in August and collected more than 700 signatures on a petition that it presented to municipal council. However, she said the application for funding to the provincial Department of Municipal Affairs has not yet moved forward to the federal government for funding.
The association is hosting a special public meeting Sunday with the candidates running in Cape Breton-Canso in the Oct. 21 federal election to make sure their new member of Parliament understands the urgency of the problem.
“Whoever gets elected to this federal position, whatever party, we will make them aware of the issue with the Inverness sewage treatment plant,” MacDonald told the Cape Breton Post on Wednesday.
“If it’s in the new year and it only gets to the federal government in 2020, that means construction is not going to start until the summer of 2020, and that’s not acceptable to the business community or the residents here. It’s not fair for this community to have to put up with that horrendous stench that was going through the community. People were getting sick and gagging. Tourists and people that were booking trips here were cancelling their bookings because of the smell. It’s just very unhealthy.”
Inverness Warden Betty Ann MacQuarrie has called the sewage situation a “crisis” and the municipality recently held an emergency meeting to approve the design of the plant, which is estimated to cost $6 million.
The design work is expected to be complete in November and MacQuarrie said they need provincial and federal approval as soon as possible so they can replace the old plant, which has been overwhelmed in recent years by an influx of tourists drawn in by the two world-class golf courses and ocean vistas, before next summer.
“It’s very important to the community of Inverness. Very important,” said MacQuarrie, who plans to attend the public meeting with the federal candidates. “It just can’t persist. Something has to be done as soon as possible. We don’t want to find out what occurs if it persists. We really don’t want to find out.”
While a recent survey by the same researchers who compile the UN’s annual World Happiness Report found that Inverness residents are the most satisfied with their lives, MacDonald doesn’t know if that will be the case if the sewage problem persists.
“There’s got to be something done,” she said. “We can’t have another summer with that smell. It impacts on our tourism season and our economic growth here. We don’t want to be known as stinky Inverness.”
Sunday’s candidates meeting is being held at the Inverness fire hall from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
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