Area resident challenges Town of Antigonish over runoff from solar garden project

Ed Gillis lives next door to the new community solar garden being built in Antigonish, N.S.

He's been fighting with the town over many issues, including one he thinks could have major environmental ramifications.

The town clear cut a large section of land for the three megawatt solar garden right up to his property line. He said that shouldn't have happened due to a number of large sinkholes in the wooded area and proximity to a small river.

"This goes back to March, and it's now December, that I have brought forward concerns," he said.

Those concerns are sediment and other matter going into the river.

The area under construction used to be the town garbage dump back in the 1960s and 70s. The area has been clear cut and construction is ramping up.

Gillis has complained about how water is running off from the site. He has documented through pictures and videos how the runoff after heavy rainfalls could cause severe erosion to the banks of nearby Rights River.

"They stripped it of all vegetation and the contractor's method up to this point to deal with the water was to pump the collected surface water into the sinkholes," said Gillis. "That's just going right out into the river."

This week, officers with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) visited the site. The town says it will work with the department to try to resolve the runoff issue.

"The stormwater management plan that we had in place isn't fully addressing sediment leaving the site and entering Rights River," said town CAO Jeff Lawrence. "We are working with our engineering consultants who have stormwater expertise to develop a new plan."

In an email to CBC News, DFO said it received a report related to a sediment release into a tributary of the Rights River near an active construction site in Antigonish. The department said on Thursday, its staff conducted an inspection of the construction site and surrounding area and has been in communication with the company. DFO said it would continue to monitor the situation.

Lawrence said the end goal is to slow the stormwater to allow sediment to settle out so it will stay out of the river and reduce possible erosion impacts. When completed, the site will be hydroseeded and grass will help soak up heavy rains and slow the runoff.

Antigonish, Mahone Bay and Berwick received $16.4 million in funding to build solar farms in their communities.

While post-tropical storm Fiona and other rain storms have caused delays, the goal is to have the site completed and generating power by late 2023. The panels are currently being stored in Truro and will be attached to their support posts, many of which are already in place, in the spring.

Gillis and others who live near the site are still upset an environmental assessment wasn't done before any of the work began.

He wrote a letter to Premier Tim Houston expressing his disappointment. While he never heard from the premier, he did receive a letter from Environment Minister Tim Halman stating an environmental assessment wasn't required.