Flooding fears near N.S.-N.B. border prompt calls for fast dike fixes

People who live on the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick say they're anxious about the dikes that protect their area from flooding, and some fear promised solutions are too slow coming.

Last week, New Brunswick's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure issued a request for proposals for an engineering study on the Chignecto Isthmus, the low-lying strip of land linking New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The document calls for the study to propose three "viable solutions" to protect the isthmus.

"If this isthmus gets flooded, then all of Nova Scotia is broken off, and P.E.I, depending on where it goes," said Kim Ripley, who lives near Amherst, N.S., and owns a fruit and vegetable market in Sackville, N.B.

"It's scary to think that this whole channel could go."

Isthmus houses important infrastructure

Besides the Trans-Canada Highway, other infrastructure found along the isthmus includes a CN Rail line, which is also used by Via Rail, telecommunications lines, natural gas lines and Nova Scotia Power lines, including lines intended to transport power from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador to beyond Nova Scotia's border.

"The strategic importance of this infrastructure to all Atlantic Canada and indeed to the nation as a whole cannot be over stated," the New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure wrote in its request for proposals.

The study must be complete by Feb. 12, 2021. Amherst Mayor David Kogon said he expects the engineering firm that conducts the study will be chosen this fall.

"Whatever is determined to be the curative arrangement for the protection of the marshes from the rising sea levels, [it's] going to be a number of years before that's all done," he said.

The dike system reclaiming land on the Chignecto Isthmus was started in 1671, according to the request for proposals.

"My concern is what is it they're going to do that's going to last 500 years?" said Ripley, who said she would be cut off from either her home or her business if the Trans-Canada Highway were closed due to flooding.

"I've never seen a modern engineering company build a building that's lasted longer than how they used to build them. So, that would be my biggest concern: how much time and energy are they going to put into reinventing a wheel? Just do what they did and fix it."

Farm flooding

Dairy farmer Doug Bacon, who lives in Upper Nappan, N.S., which is five kilometres south of Amherst, said flooding is already a problem in the area. 

"I've had flooding situations here where my cattle have been isolated," he said. "Due to the flooding and that, you know, they were up to their bellies in water for a number of days ... I took hay out with a canoe and just fed them. The hay floated in the water and they ate the hay, believe it or not."

The federal government will pay for half of the $700,000 study, while New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will each pay a quarter.