KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – The planned release of treated effluents into the Northumberland Strait by Northern Pulp is a topic of much debate, with some arguing all will be fine, while others, many fishermen amongst them, fear that it will not be safe at all.
Folks engaged in that debate may find an early 2000s water quality study of the St. Croix Estuary of interest. The St Croix Estuary, a body of water separating Maine and New Brunswick, located at the western mouth of the Bay of Fundy, has been the recipient of effluents of a local paper mill since 1965.
Art MacKay, a now retired biologist, is one of the authors of the 2003 study of the relative environmental health of the St. Croix Estuary over the the last 400 years. The study is part historic research, and part data collected in the early 2000s through fieldwork. #nspoli