After the onslaught

We've had a few days to consider what has happened.  On Monday it became clear that no level of government wanted to get involved.  At the same time, nobody seemed prepared to say that the construction on the beach was acceptable in the eyes of their department. Later, a town official sent a message saying that since the Department of the Environment 'are fine from their perspective with the work that has taken place for the wharf', the town has no problem with it.  

I've visited the website of the provincial Department of Environment and Conservation.  The Environmental Guidelines for CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE OF WHARVES, BREAKWATERS, SLIPWAYS AND BOATHOUSES made for an interesting read, especially the following sections:

14.5.1 Equipment Operation

The use of heavy equipment in streams or bodies of water is not permitted. Heavy equipment must be kept outside the high-water mark of all drainage courses and bodies of water. The operation of all heavy equipment must be confined to dry, stable areas to reduce production of mud and silt laden water.

Suitable measures must be taken to prevent or reduce the generation of silted or muddied water from the operation of heavy equipment.

14.5.6 Bank Disturbance

At all times, every necessary precaution should be taken to prevent the disturbance of channel banks, bank vegetation and land within the high water mark, flood zone or 15m environmental buffer of any body of water. A minimum 15 meter wide vegetated buffer zone must be maintained along the edge of the water body in order to provide bank stability and maintain local aesthetics.

14.3.3 Site Restoration

Any areas adversely affected by this project must be restored to a state that resembles local natural conditions. Further remedial measures to mitigate environmental impacts on water resources can and will be specified, if considered necessary in the opinion of the Department of Environment and Conservation.

And yet, the department failed to see any contravention of the guidelines.  

The federal government also publishes an Operational Statement regarding Dock and Boathouse Construction.  It puts similar limitations on what can transpire in the ocean and within 15 metres of the high water mark.

Provincial: http://www.env.gov.nl.ca/env/waterres/regulations/appforms/Guidelines_for_Wharves.pdf
Federal: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/habitat/what-quoi/os-eo/nl/pdf/dock-eng.pdf  *

When this began we were upset that one individual had undertaken a wharf project that was executed in a way that showed disregard for the environment and for the public good.  The opportunity for many to enjoy a natural beach was subjucated by the desire of one man to build a honking great dock system.

Now it has become a quest to learn why the provincial and federal governments publish guidelines for environmental protection but do nothing to ensure those rules are adhered to.  In fact, when apparent violations are drawn to their attention, they do not respond.

Is it me or is it they who are misinterpreting the bans on heavy equipment in the water and the disturbance of vegetation within 15 m of the high water mark?  Can anyone show that the area has been restored to a state that resembles local natural conditions?

A large set of Healey's Cove pictures, with captions and dates, can be viewed at tinyurl.com/HealeysCove

* December 2013 update.  This link no longer works.  See instead http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/pnw-ppe/measures-mesures/index-eng.html  for a different version of the guidelines.

Help, somebody, anybody?

Monday morning, June 3

What, more again?  The excavator returns.  Soon it becomes evident that today's objective is to cover in the fixed wharf stub as much as possible so it stays er . . .fixed.  Earth and fill are scraped from the ocean, the beach and the adjacent inland area.  Trees are slain.  The big scoop flies here and there.

We're feeling desperate.  We have always understood that shoreline and ocean waters were not to be disturbed without appropriate application, including impact statements, and subsequent protective measures.  The man from provincial environment referred to containment booms to limit the effects of silting.  None of those here, and we are close to a scheduled salmon river, plus lobster are being taken in the harbour just now.  What about disturbance of the beach, both above and below the waterline -- whose responsibility is that?  The lane and road have been mutilated.  Can the town afford  to repair that?  And now the digging is within meters of the sewer outfall.

We seize on the potential risk to the sewer and email the town.  Sure enough, a couple of men arrive to have a look.  Their visit is short and nothing stops.  Did they not notice the ravaged beach, damaged roads, excavator in the water?  Is this not the town that last week unveiled the new Oceans Holyrood Initative?  Sorry to have bothered you.

Provincial Environment is doubtful of its jurisdiction.  There is a division responsible for fisheries habitat.  Somebody will send the information to them.  We are told the dock owner has now applied to construct a boathouse on the shore.

Federal DFO takes some interest, but once again it's a matter of finding the right people in the right division.

Okay, we know that neither level of government gives top priority to the environment.  It's not the fault of staff if there are not enough people to enforce regulations that are too weak to protect the ocean and too poorly monitored to act as deterrents.

But, somebody tell me please:  WHOSE BEACH IS IT AND DOESN'T ANYBODY WANT TO SAVE IT?

P.S.  The floating dock is in.  Another happy boating season ahead.

Working on Saturday

Saturday, June 1.
Will breakfast time always be so fraught?  The excavator is next door, digging up rocks and earth from the neighbour's extra lot.

More loads are hauled to the beach.  Gosh, it takes no time at all when the source is so close!  The dump truck has got over its bashfulness of yesterday and drives right across the beach today.  Splash go the boulders, straight into the ocean.

It turns out the excavator is an amphibian.  Here it is, frolicking in the water.  Clever, huh?

By now I am virtually apoplectic.  Here I've been spending my time picking up the odd chip bag or pop can left on the shore.  What the blazes am I going to do about 10 dump truck loads of material?  Is it really true that this is okay, that our governments at all levels don't mind such an assault on the ocean and on a public beach?

In utter frustration, I call the Marine Pollution Report Line -- our federal government protecting our oceans.  The guy was quite perplexed that I was calling him.  It seems their only interest is in oil discharge.  Told me I should expect to see a bit of silting when a breakwater is built.  Yes, but who gave permission to do that?  He offered me the phone number of the provincial Dept of Environment, which would be ready to serve me on Monday.

The equipment departed once again late in the afternoon.  Sunday was quiet.  I tried to reconcile myself to watching the beach slowly attempt to recover itself over the next several years.

The Dock: Phase II

May 31, 2013

When you are retired, there is no rush to finish the pot of coffee and get on with the day.  So it was that I was still reading the previous day's paper when I heard the rumbling of heavy equipment out front.  A look out the window revealed a big red dump truck on the beach.  Say what?

The potential for beach destruction on a major scale was obvious.  It happened that the newspaper in my hand held a classified advert letting interested parties know that somebody wanted to build a dock somewhere and who it was they should call if concerned.  So we called the number.  We had a number of conversations, both by phone and in person, with this employee of the provincial department that issues permits for installing docks on public property.  He did show some concern.  In fact, he visited the cove on his own time at the end of the work day.  The best he could say was that if the dock owner did not have a permit in place, a stop-work order could be issued until said permit was obtained.

During the day, eight truck loads of material, ranging from massive hunks of armour stone to brown gravel had been delivered.  In mid-afternoon, the dump truck was replaced by an excavator.  It shifted much of the stone from where it had been dumped on the north end of the beach to the area of the dock.  All equipment left for the night and we wondered whether that was the end.

The next year

From the summer of 2011 to the fall of 2012, when the next pictures were taken, we observed a couple of things.  The small breakwaters gradually eroded, with rocks sliding into the harbour.  Few of the rocks stood above the water at high tide.

It appeared that the beach was eroding and that its contours had been altered.  Where once it was never a problem to walk the beach at high tide, now there was almost nothing between the ocean and the woods at high tide.

During the winter of 2013, the floating dock broke free and was taken ashore.  It spent the next few months sitting atop the sewer outfall.

How things went from there

So . . . a couple of days after the dock was installed, the wind blew.  This is not an entirely unusual event.  The dock and boat felt the challenge.

Notice the silt in the water.  This obvious discolouration continued for months after the installation of the dock.

Meanwhile, the gouges upland remained.  The beach showed scarring from the excavator and the laneway was never remediated.

The dock: Phase I

July 27, 2011.  An excavator was driven onto the beach and went to work digging out those huge boulders I had watched for 25 years and hauling them to the site of the new wharf.  We were shocked that such equipment would be permitted to mangle the shoreline.

 Jim spoke to the operator of the excavator questioning his right to operate on the beach.  His inquiries were not well received.  I took a couple of pictures as I felt certain it was all a terrible mistake and we would soon be speaking with environmental officials to sort this out.

Surprise!  We had a visit from an RCMP officer, in response to a complaint from the dock owner. He agreed we had committed no offense, but suggested we avoid further conversation with those building the dock.  We felt intimidated.  Was it worth bringing trouble on ourselves by contacting authorities to see whether they really had authorized the mutilation of the beach?  Others in the neighbourhood came by and expressed their dismay over what was happening.  No one intervened.

Within a few days there were a fixed wooden platform, a floating dock and two mini breakwaters.

Material was scooped from the ocean and from the nearby land to complete the structure.

Rumours of change

A couple of years ago we learned via the newspaper that an individual had applied to put a dock in the cove.   The provincial government, part of the Department of Environment and Lands, issues permits for such docks.  There have been other wharves in the past in the cove.  In fact, long ago there was a ferry to take passengers across to the south side of Holyrood Harbour.  More recently, a neighbour had a dock just north of here for his small boat.  It was a simple design, with cribbing attached to the shore.  It must be admitted that the dock was not a great success and was destroyed by a winter's storm.

We and others who frequent the public beach were concerned that the new dock not impend our access to the beach or have other detrimental effects on the shoreline.  We requested from the department but were not given details of the wharf location or its proposed design.  We anticipated that the new wharf would be no more intrusive than the old one as we understood it was to be used by one small boat.

You may understand by now that we love this beach.  We have become its unofficial guardians.  We see that it remains free of trash.   We enjoy sharing it with the kids and young families who are regular visitors.  There is an ongoing transition:  first your parents wheel you down in the stroller, then you hold Mom's hand as you make your way down, as a pre-teen you come with your buddies, next it's a place for couples in the late evening, finally you push a stroller with your own offspring (some of which we've been told were conceived on the beach).

Seabirds visit daily and some years there will be a nesting pair of gulls in the area.  Eagle landings are always exciting.

Where the story begins

Once upon a time there was a little beach in Healey's Cove.  The cove is an out-of-the way spot just outside the North Arm of Holyrood, in Conception Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador.

We have owned a house in Healey's Cove since 1984.  At first it was our summer place, but since 1998 it has been our year-round home.  That's 29 years as property owners and 15 years as permanent residents, but it is significant to note that we were not born here and our surname is not Healey.

The little beach is small, but how much space do you need to get close to the water, dip your fingers in the ocean, toss in a few stones or just sit and admire the view?  It is the only beach access along the north shore of Holyrood harbour, a distance of about 5 km.

If I had known the beach was in jeopardy I would have taken more pictures of it.  Here's a shot snapped on a wet day, taken, like most of my beach pictures, from the upstairs of our house, looking south towards North Arm.  See those big boulders?  They were always my way of measuring whether the tide was high or low.  We used to harvest mussels from the beach in the area on the right of the shot, but that was before the town installed a sewer outfall back beyond the left (north) edge of the scene.  This was in about 2000.

We were not unhappy about the sewer outfall.  Giving up the free mussels was a reasonable trade for hooking into the town sanitary system and getting off the septic tank.  The construction of the sewer did rip up the laneway in front of the house and make a huge mess of the bank between us and the ocean.  But -- it did not destroy the beach.  The sewer pipe is covered in with an armour stone breakwater to the north of the beach (beyond left of picture) and the beach remained intact.

The town and construction company had no provision for remediating the bank, which stood naked, with nothing but grey gravel.  So . . . we bought bags of clover seed to scatter down the hill, planted a few small spruce trees, threw in handfuls of lupin seeds and did what we could to encourage growth of anything that would stabilize the bank.  We placed an old picnic table at the edge for public use, and to discourage drivers from getting too close to the edge.  

Not a bad view, is it?  A public lane, the unpaved extension of Healey's Cove Road, runs between our house and the table.  The bank drops straight to the ocean behind the table and the beach is to the right, south of here.  It is now covered in with a mass of clover, wild flowers, spruce saplings and escaped raspberry bushes.  Not tidy, but mostly green.