Mt. A study raises link between urbanization and water contamination at Parlee Beach

A study by environmental microbiology students at Mount Allison University has found there could be a link between development along the coast andfecalcontamination of the water atParleeBeach inShediac.

More than 100 people showed up to a public symposium onmicrobial water quality in theNorthumberlandStrait at the university Monday, including many concerned citizens and representatives of municipalities along the coast and of the Department of Environment.

Prof.Douglas Campbell started working on the project in November, when he was approached by community members in theShediacarea who were concerned about continuing problems with water quality.

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'Itdoesn't look like a systemic problemacrossthe entireNorthumberlandStrait.'- Douglas Campbell

Since January students have been collating data from four beaches along the eastern shoreline of New Brunswick.

"They assembled about 13,000 records ... in theNorthumberlandStrait dating back to the1940s," Campbell toldInformation MorningMoncton. "Then they started the preliminary analysis of patterns over time."

The evidence shows there are continuing problems at Murray andParleebeaches, which are not indicative of a larger problemin theNorthumberlandStrait.

"AboiteauBeach, based on one-year of data, looks quite good,Kouchibouguaclooks consistently good over many years and that tells us that the problems are patchy andlocalized itdoesn't look like a systemic problem."

Changes in land use

One key finding was a relationship between periods of heavy rain and bacterial content in the water.An important contributor to contamination is runoff from the ground during those periods.

Campbell saidthat includes poorly designed septic systems or sewage lagoons that overflow with rain, andpipes in the municipal sewer system that might be poorly connected, sofecalcontent ends up one way or another getting intothe ground andwashingaway into the sea.

A secondgroup of students mapped changes in land use inShediacover the years.

Although they indicatemore research is needed to come to conclusions, they raised the possibility of land use changing from forest or wetland, into gravel as happens during urbanization,causingmore runoff into the bay,due to an increase in surfaces that doesn't allow fluids to pass through them.

When asked whether he thought the contamination could be tied to development, Campbell said, "I think that's a good hypothesis."

Things have crept back up

Campbell said there was a period in the early 2000swhen the water at Parlee Beach was clean, with contamination problems in the years before and after that period of time.

"In the late 1990s, there was a previous effort to find and address problems in the area, and from the microbial counts it looks like it worked. And since then, things have crept back up."

A 1999 study by the Shediac Bay Watershed Association had pointed the finger at several culpritsfor dumping raw sewage into the bay at the time.

Although traces of animal feces have been found in Shediac Bay, Campbell is confident a major source of the contamination is from humans.

Last week, the province indicated it would sample the water at Parlee Beach on a daily basis and at five different locations this summer, which many think will help zero in on the problem.

"If we did a lot of sampling along that shore, intensively, we could start to identify problems quite quickly I think," said Campbell.