Latest news with #HalifaxWater
CBC
2 days ago
- General
- CBC
Halifax completes maintenance work after diverting wastewater into harbour
Social Sharing After diverting millions of cubic metres of wastewater into Halifax harbour and the Bedford Basin, Halifax Water's treatment facilities have returned to normal operations. The utility announced in late April that it needed to replace UV lighting equipment at its facilities in Halifax and Dartmouth, which caused them to be shut down for different periods of time. It said the way the system is set up, it could not divert wastewater to other locations. Halifax Water said the maintenance work at the Halifax treatment facility was completed on May 1 and on May 31 at the Dartmouth facility. The utility previously said the project would result in approximately two million cubic metres of wastewater to be released into the harbour from 14 approved relief points between the Fairview neighbourhood and downtown Halifax. It was asking residents in certain areas to reduce their use of running water, including flushing toilets less often and limiting use of washing machines. "Halifax Water appreciates the public's support in reducing their water consumption and minimizing recreational activities during the maintenance window," a news release said. The utility said it will provide a final report to Environment and Climate Change Canada and anticipates it will share the sampling results on its website.
CTV News
7 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Project that caused wastewater to be pumped into the harbour to end on time: Halifax Water
People hike along the rocky coastline at Herring Cove Provincial Park as the mouth of Halifax harbour is seen in the background in Halifax, Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese The project that caused Halifax Water to pump wastewater into the harbour and Bedford Basin for the last month will be wrapping up on time. Whether or not it's on budget is still to be determined. 'We will not have any budget information until after all the contracts have been completed, and the work has been completed,' says senior communications advisor Brittany Smith. The utility needed to replace UV lighting equipment at its facilities in Halifax and Dartmouth which forced them to be shut down. Five-million cubic metres of untreated but screened wastewater, including human waste, food-scrap, oils and chemicals entered the water Despite the recent warm weather, Smith says they have not received any complaints about smell. 'Usually, a couple times a year we will get smell complaints, typically during the dry season, but we have not received any related to this project,' says Brittany Smith. Halifax Water also advised people against coming into contact with the harbour water during this time. No reports of health issues have come in. The work on the treatment plants is scheduled to end on June 2. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
CBC
27-05-2025
- General
- CBC
How Halifax Water communicated major boil-water order leaves 'serious questions to answer,' says councillor
When Halifax Water wanted to get the word out in late January about a boil-water order affecting about 200,000 customers, one of the resources it turned to was the city's emergency notifications platform, hfxALERT. "While this is a subscription-based system, it is widely used and supports getting the message out," the utility said in a February report issued to regulators. But at the time of the Jan. 21, 2025, alert, only about 40,000 of the city's roughly 500,000 residents were signed up to the platform. Just how Halifax Water communicated with residents about the boil-water order was, in part, the subject of two blunt emails a municipal councillor sent to a pair of Halifax Water officials — spokesperson Jeff Myrick and general manager Kenda MacKenzie — on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. District 16 Coun. Jean St-Amand called the utility's approach "another failure in our critical emergency communications apparatus," and said "there are serious questions to answer here." CBC News obtained the emails through an access-to-information request. The Bedford-Wentworth councillor highlighted problems, in part, with how Nova Scotia Power notifies the water utility of planned outages and how Halifax Water communicates with residents about service issues. "I was really trying to get at the essence of what I felt could have been done better and why I was asking the questions that I was asking [was] because it was a reflection of what I was being asked by residents," St-Amand told CBC. The advisory was put in place after a planned outage by Nova Scotia Power caused an issue at the Pockwock Lake water treatment facility. Water continued to be treated, but lacked chlorine disinfection. While the interruption was originally reported as allowing unchlorinated water to enter the system for about 30 minutes, the report filed with regulators said it was actually 66 minutes. It was the second time in less than a year that a widespread boil-water order was in place for a swath of the Halifax Regional Municipality. The first incident, on Canada Day, ended up lasting 40 hours and also affected customers who get their water from the Pockwock facility. Pockwock serves about half of Halifax Water's customers Pockwock is the largest treatment facility for Halifax Water, offering up water to about half of its customers. The January boil-water order caused disruptions throughout the municipality, prompting some businesses to close and forcing some surgeries to be rescheduled. The order also attracted scathing criticism from the premier. "This is an awful situation, a complete embarrassment," Tim Houston told CTV News. "Shame on Halifax Water." Outage notifications If it wasn't for an off-duty Halifax Water employee, the utility may not have learned about the planned Nova Scotia Power outage before the power went out. While residents such as St-Amand received automated phone messages from Nova Scotia Power about the planned outage, which was set to happen at 10:30 p.m. AT on Monday, Jan. 20, the autodial number on file for Halifax Water's Pockwock facility was inactive. Around 8:35 p.m., an off-duty Halifax Water employee saw a social media post about the planned outage and texted an on-duty operator asking if they knew about it. The on-duty staffer then began taking steps to prepare. In one of St-Amand's emails to MacKenzie and Myrick, he wondered what was required of Nova Scotia Power for notifying Halifax Water about outages. MacKenzie told CBC that some of the phone numbers Nova Scotia Power had on hand were out of date or weren't being answered by the appropriate staff members. As a result of the January incident, she said, Nova Scotia Power now calls a 24-hour number at Halifax Water to ensure direct contact with staff. Notifying residents While the city has its own emergency notifications platform — hfxALERT — users must sign up to receive the alerts, which can come via text message, email or an app notification. Under the province's emergency alert system, messages are automatically sent to people's cellphones — they do not have to sign up to receive them. Both the provincial system and hfxALERT can geographically target people in specific areas. In one of St-Amand's emails, he said residents were asking about the lack of a region-wide emergency alert. Social media flaws "Social media is completely inadequate to the task, especially as residents may go about their morning routine, using this now at-risk water, without having seen anything from Halifax Water until after the fact, if at all," wrote St-Amand on Jan. 21. As of mid-May, Halifax Water had about 5,000 followers on Facebook and about 8,200 on X (formerly Twitter). MacKenzie told CBC the threshold for using the provincial alert system is when there is an imminent threat to life. During the Canada Day boil-water order, alerts were issued through the hfxALERT and provincial systems. To get the word out about the boil-water order on the morning of Jan. 21, Halifax Water relied on its social media channels, public service notices it sent to media outlets and interviews with them, and emails sent to area councillors. An hfxALERT was issued at 6:45 a.m. Alert system has 'pitifully low' number of subscribers, says St-Amand On that day, there were 40,141 hfxALERT subscribers, which St-Amand told CBC is "pitifully low." Today, the number of subscribers is just under 44,500. MacKenzie said she wasn't aware how few people were signed up for the service in January. "I do know that HRM is continuing, especially through [its] recent Emergency [Preparedness] Week, to promote sign-up to the Halifax alert and hopes to get more people subscribing to that," she said. MacKenzie said the utility did issue a non-intrusive alert through the provincial system during the January boil-water order. However, these alerts only show up for users of The Weather Network app. In one of St-Amand's emails, he said social media should be used as a supplement — and not a replacement — for communicating with residents. "I had to call my mother this morning to warn her about the boil advisory this morning, even though she IS on social media," he wrote. "The Mass Casualty Commission blasted police for relying upon social media for emergency message distribution because the algorithm drastically impacts visibility." Utility looking at more ways to contact customers in emergencies St-Amand also wondered why Halifax Water wouldn't be able to use the information it already had on hand from customers — such as phone numbers and addresses — as a means of notifying them. MacKenzie said that because of privacy laws, Halifax Water cannot use customers' contact information for purposes other than billing due to the consent the utility obtained. She said Halifax Water is looking into other ways to contact customers during emergencies. Asked to comment on St-Amand's criticisms, MacKenzie said there is room for the utility to improve how it communicates with residents. "We're taking that feedback and that input to try and explore different mechanisms or different avenues that we can build off of … it's still a work in progress, but we are taking all that feedback into consideration," she said. On Monday, municipal staff told councillors Halifax Water now has the ability to send its own intrusive provincial alerts without waiting for HRM. "They now have a policy based on feedback received from those two previous [boil-water] incidents, and I think that's pretty well established right now," Bill Moore, Halifax's commissioner of public safety, said during an executive committee meeting. CAO Cathie O'Toole also said the provincial government is working to create Nova Scotia-wide recommendations for local governments and utilities about how and when alerts are issued for similar boil-water incidents.
CBC
15-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
'I'm very concerned': N.S. government to intervene in Halifax Water rate hike case
Social Sharing The Nova Scotia government says it will wade into the regulatory review of Halifax Water's proposed rate hikes with concerns about affordability. Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr said the province will intervene in the review that's underway with the Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board. "We just think this is a time when affordability and cost, household costs are significant, and so we'll be just bringing that message to the regulatory and appeals board," Lohr told reporters Thursday in Halifax following a cabinet meeting. Halifax Water applied to the board this month for two rate increases. The first would raise the average household water bill by 16.2 per cent this fiscal year and the second would raise the average household bill an additional 17.6 per cent next fiscal year. Halifax Water has said the rate hikes are necessary in the face of a growing deficit and inflation. The utility has several large infrastructure projects in the works. Will try to 'soften the blow' "I'm very concerned by this," said Scott Armstrong, minister of opportunities and social development. Armstrong said his department will look for ways to "soften the blow" for Halifax Water customers, should rate increases go ahead. "We do have programs in place and if those programs aren't sufficient, we'll have to look at being flexible and putting things in place that will help keep people attached to housing. That would be one of our highest priorities," Armstrong told reporters Thursday after cabinet. An industry group representing landlords is also intervening in the case. The Rental Housing Providers of Nova Scotia told CBC News earlier this week that higher water rates would lead to higher rents. Opposition calls for more support for utility, customers Interim Liberal Leader Derek Mombourquette said the proposed rate increases are "pretty alarming." "The government is going to have to look at some enhancement of programs to help people," he said. Mombourquette said the province should be "strategically investing money" to take some of the pressure off Halifax Water. Lohr said the province has already "invested heavily" in water and sewer projects across the province, and "we continue to do more all the time." NDP MLA Susan LeBlanc said she'd like the province to consider implementing a low-income water rate. "People just can't afford more," she said. "We do have major infrastructure needs, our water infrastructure is aging, so the government could come in at that level and help with the projects so that rates don't have to increase," she added. The case will go to a public hearing before the regulatory and appeals board in September.
CBC
13-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Halifax Water rate hike will drive up rents, landlords say
Two rate hikes proposed by Halifax Water will drive up rents in the municipality's already strained housing market, according to an association that represents landlords. The Rental Housing Providers of Nova Scotia has filed for intervener status in the water utility's application to the Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board, submitting a short letter on Monday in which the industry group said it's "deeply concerned" about the proposed rate changes. Kevin Russell, executive director of Rental Housing Providers of Nova Scotia, said he's gathering evidence to make his case to the board. "It's just another cost that the industry will have to bear, which ultimately will end up in rents," Russell said in an interview. Halifax Water applied to the board earlier this month for rate increases that would come into effect over two years. The utility is asking for a 16.2 per cent increase in the average residential bill in the 2025 fiscal year, which began April 1, and an additional 17.6 per cent increase in the 2026 fiscal year. Russell said he doesn't have exact numbers on how many rental units include water in the rent and how many units require tenants to pay their water bills directly. However, he said the majority of purpose-built rental buildings have water included, while many units in family homes do not. Russell said he doesn't know what it will look like yet, but he intends to propose to the board an alternative to what Halifax Water has proposed. The board has scheduled a public hearing for the matter in September, where submissions from all participants can be reviewed and discussed before the board makes a decision. Private landlords aren't the only ones worried about Halifax Water's proposal. 'Every dollar counts' Trish McCourt said this "significant" jump in water costs will be hard to absorb for non-profit housing operators. "Every dollar counts when it comes to non-profit housing developments," said McCourt, executive director of the Nova Scotia Non-Profit Housing Association, in an interview. "There's not a lot of places to go to find that additional revenue for those kinds of increases, especially when you're looking at something happening fairly soon," she added. McCourt said her organization has not applied to intervene in the regulatory review of Halifax Water's case, but she didn't rule it out. Like Russell, McCourt couldn't say exactly how many non-profit housing providers incur water costs themselves. But she said those who do are likely looking at their budgets, trying to sort out how they might accommodate bigger bills. "Something like water really affects non-profits in a very similar way to private organizations, but non-profits usually have less of a cushion." In cases where the non-profit does not pay for water, McCourt said the concern is for the tenants. "Of course, non-profit housing providers have a lot more tenants that are at the more affordable end of the spectrum, needing more support when it comes to being housed and remaining housed. So adding an unexpected amount to their budget like that is pretty significant for the tenants as well." 'Rates must increase' In its submission to the board, Halifax Water said it's contending with an "urgent need to replace aging infrastructure," and a slew of external pressures including inflation, increased borrowing costs and increased labour and material costs. The utility said these factors are driving up the deficit and the need for higher rates. Halifax Water's budgeted deficit for the 2024 fiscal year was more than $18 million. In its application to the board, the utility said without the proposed rate increases, the deficit would rise to $37.1 million this fiscal year and $55.8 million in the next fiscal year. Two major infrastructure projects on the docket are a new $70-million operations centre and a nearly $70-million set of upgrades at the Windsor Street exchange in Halifax. In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson added that rates are the utility's only funding source, and for the last two rate applications Halifax Water used reserves and operating surpluses to keep rates low — an approach that it no longer considers to be an option. "As a result, rates must increase to address these financial challenges and maintain reliable water services," said Jeff Myrick. Myrick said Halifax Water respects the concerns of landlords and welcomes their participation in the regulatory review process.
