News release

Guysborough to Receive Municipal Innovation Award

Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations (Oct. 2000 - March 2014)

SERVICE N.S./MUNICIPAL RELATIONS--Guysborough to Receive Municipal Innovation Award


For its creative solution to the long-standing Little Dover wastewater disposal problem and its related health risks, the Municipality of the District of Guysborough will receive the first municipal government innovation award the province has ever presented.

The Nova Scotia government created the Municipal InNOVAward to recognize innovative approaches to delivering municipal programs and services.

At first glance, the community of Little Dover, Guysborough Co., seems almost idyllic. Consisting of about 150 homes, the community sits atop rock and granite facing the Atlantic ocean.

Beneath the surface however, there was a serious risk to the health of people living there. As in most rural communities in Nova Scotia, Little Dover residents had individual septic systems for on-site sewage and wastewater treatment. However, in too many of these properties, these on-site systems were too close to wells and the result was contaminated drinking water for most residents.

A 2000 study by the municipality found that 71 per cent of household wells were contaminated because of inadequate sewage and wastewater disposal. The risk to residents' health was obvious.

For years, residents and municipal officials tried to come up with a solution to a problem that was complicated by local geology and the economic conditions of the community. The rock and granite made conventional solutions unworkable; the downturn in the fishery had affected the ability of residents to financially contribute to any solution.

One step towards a solution was the formation of a wastewater management district for Little Dover. It enabled the municipality to install and manage whatever sewage treatment system was developed, even though parts of it were on private property.

Another break came when officials from Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations found a sewage treatment system in Oregon that seemed like a fit for Little Dover.

The system designed for the community is known as a decentralized sewer system. It includes a 4,500-litre (1,000-gallon) underground tank on each property begins treating the sewage and wastewater. The tank feeds into a four-inch line four feet below the surface that conveys the liquid waste water for final treatment to the centralized recirculating sand filter treatment system. The treated wastewater is discharged into the ocean.

The cost of the system was budgeted at $2.8 million, a lot of money for 150 households. Funding under the Canada-Nova Scotia Infrastructure Program was approved, with two-thirds of the project cost being paid by the federal and Nova Scotia governments. The Municipality of Guysborough is picking up the remaining third. Local residents will also be helping to pay, but the financing takes into account the economic conditions of the area.

In announcing the Municipal InNOVAward, Angus MacIsaac, Minister of Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations, said "The project is much more than a sewer system. It involves a new technology in Nova Scotia and a financing arrangement that recognizes the financial circumstances of the residents. The cost of providing public services is so high that it is more important than ever that governments are innovative and creative in looking beyond the conventional approaches.

"The residents of the Municipality of Guysborough were well served by their public officials when they conceived of this solution to the sewage treatment and water problems at Little Dover. The municipality is a fitting and deserving first recipient of this award."

Mr. MacIsaac made the announcement today, Oct. 25, at the annual meeting of the Association of Municipal Administrators in Baddeck. The award will be presented at the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities conference in Halifax Nov. 6.

"We're very pleased to be receiving this award," said Lloyd Hines, warden of the Municipality of Guysborough. "It is a credit to the people of Little Dover and recognizes what can be accomplished when citizens and their local government work together towards a common goal."