Province cleaning up fabrication yard debris from marsh in Borden-Carleton, man says it's too late

After an influx of concrete and debris from the fabrication yard washed into a marsh on Borden-Carleton's south shore, the province is now taking action to clean up the area but one man says it's too late.

John Read first noticed the gravel last month after a spring storm. He said the debris came from the fabrication yard and was washing into the local marsh. 

Read said the area has been chewed away by the tiny bits of concrete washing in and slowly destroying the marsh which was home to clams, quahogs, geese and ducks.

"There used to be a dike there but the gravel has an effect on the root system and it just chews it away to nothing," Read said.

Province removing debris, adding soil

Read has been lobbying to get the area cleaned up to save what's left of the ecosystem there. 

P.E.I.'s Department of Environment had previously told CBC News it was aware of the issue and that the entire area is being severely impacted by natural coastal erosion.

Now the department and Finance PEI, which owns the yard, are working on some protective measures for the erosion on the shoreline. 

"A local company is now doing some work as outlined by Environment. The work involves pulling soil back and removing gravel and concrete that was potentially washing into the waterway," said Innovation PEI in a statement to CBC.

It said the work is expected to take a few days and then a review will be done to see what other work is needed to help address the issue.

Cleanup is too late

Read said he's happy to see the area being cleaned up, but that it's likely coming too late. He said he suspects the marsh will not recover from the damage.

"It's too bad they hadn't done that about six weeks ago. There was a good chance you could have saved the marsh but that marsh is gone now," Read said. "I've watched a few hundred more tons of gravel wash into the system." 

Read said extensive cleanup needs to be done to the whole area and more needs to be done to prevent more concrete and gravel from falling into the waters.

"I actually like where we live — I don't like seeing it destroyed," he said.

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