Lunenburg Harbour Authority turfs anti-sewage crusader

A fisherman who first brought media attention to an outfall that dumps thick, brown sludge from a sewage plant into the Lunenburgharbour says he has now been removed from the LunenburgHarbour Authority because of a heated exchange with the town's mayor earlier this month.

Bill Flower told CBC News on Thursday evening that an emergency meeting was called this week and he was voted off the Harbour Authority, of which he was a founding member.

"I'm very upset about the whole thing," he said.

Flower, who runs Lunenburg Ocean Adventures,previously told CBC News he was fed up with sewage sludge dumped in the harbourand was worried the waste that flows from the sewage treatment plantwas actually untreated.

Shortly afterwards, teenage scientistStella Bowles,whose schoolscience project helped shine a light on pollution in the LaHave River, ran tests in the Lunenburgharbour. She said she found large amounts of fecal matter in the harbour and went so far as to saythe results made the LaHave River "look clean" by comparison.

This prompted the town to conduct its own water testing, which also found high concentrations of fecal matterin Lunenburg harbour and prompted weekly testing to be done to better understand the situation.

Harbour Authority refused to comment

President Donna Knickletold CBC News the Harbour Authority, a non-profit thatlooks after the Railway Wharf and Fishermen's Wharf,would not comment on the incident.

When asked whether shewould confirm that Flower was indeed voted out, she said, "I will make no confirmation aboutanything. Bill knows exactly the status of everything."

According to Flower, the reason for his ousting was because of his "inappropriate behaviour" towardLunenburgMayor Rachel Bailey.

'It got nasty and very, very ugly'

Flower said the pair had a heated exchange about his going public with the sewage concerns on the morning of Aug. 13, and that both he and the mayor raised their voices.

"It got nastyand very, very ugly," he said.

Despite repeated attempts on Thursday, Bailey did not reply to CBC's requests for comment.

Flower said he did apologize to the mayor after the incident.

"It was obviously inappropriate and I was voted out, and I accept that," he said.

"I don't want to fight with the mayor, I don't want to fight with town council, I just want them to get their priorities straight."

Determined to see harbour cleaned up

But Flower said he's determined to make sure the problems withLunenburgharbour are fixed.

He said he's now in the process of making a claim to Fisheries and Oceans Canada against the town for violating the Canada Water Act.

"You can't, this day and age, dump sewage into clean waters. You just can't do it. It's not right," he said.

"The bottom line is I want to get this harbour cleaned up."