Harrietsfield resident Marlene Brown decided to start a private prosecution of the polluters of her and her neighbors’ wells. A judge decided she has a case. This will be the first private prosecution to enforce environmental laws in Nova Scotia. Brown feels she had no choice, since the Department of Environment wasn’t enforcing its own ministerial orders.
Local activist Stacey Rudderham attended last week’s Harrietsfield community meeting. Residents want clean drinking water and leachate from a recycling site addressed. All they got from incumbent Liberal candidate Brendan Maguire was evasion and lies, she writes.
Rebecca Hussman reports on the Harrietsfield homeowners who, after nearly eight years, have won the legal battles involving a contaminated recycling site in Harrietsfield. They are not celebrating yet. The companies responsible for the pollution have stopped court-mandated water monitoring, and residents are still waiting for water treatment systems that the province promised would be in place by February. The story includes a video that shows the devastating effects of the contamination.
“In our own community here, every moment of every day is consumed with the contaminated water, either when you go to have a shower, brush your teeth, whatever… It’s always there in the back of your mind, and it’s very frustrating.”