Lunenburg harbour makes LaHave River 'look cleaner,' says citizen scientist

The Dayspring, N.S., teenager whose schoolscience project helped shine a light on pollution in the LaHave River says Lunenburg harbour is even dirtier.

"It makes theLaHaveRiver look cleaner, which is pretty bad because theLaHaveRiver is not clean," said StellaBowles.

The 13-year-old saidshe was compelled to test the harbour water after tour operatorBill Flower recently spoke out about thick, brown sludgehe said was coming from a sewage plant into the harbour and below a busy wharf.

The results of Bowles' testswere posted to herFacebook page Saturday evening.

For her tests done on Friday,Bowlescollected and capped water from four parts of Lunenburgharbour in sterilized bottles on a pole.

Bowles brought the bottles home and put the waterthrough a filter funnel and then intoan incubator with a card that tests enterococcilevels.

The test usually takes a full 36 hours to complete, but when she and her mother Andrea checked on the card Saturdaymorning, it suggested therewas a lot of fecal bacteria.

Blue dots will appear on the cards and each one represents a colony of fecal bacteria. If a card shows 70 dots, that means the water isn't safe for swimming, Bowles said. If the test shows 175 dots, Bowles said it means the water should not touch somebody'sskin.

"It was only 12 hours they were in the incubator and the cards were completely blue. It's disgusting," said Bowleson Saturday.

Her results suggest that at a minimum, there are hundreds of colonies of fecal bacteria in the samples.

'It's just gross'

There is a no swimming sign near the harbour, but Bowles said she saw people paddle boarding on the water as she was collecting water.

"There's people in swimsuits out there with little kids and it's just gross," said Bowles.

LunenburgMayor Rachel Bailey said Wednesday the townregularly tests the materialthat goes into the harbour from the sewage treatment plant, and all tests show it's safe.

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On Sunday, Bailey said she had not reviewed Bowles' data.

She said the town has a "sophisticated and ever evolving sewage treatment plant"thattreats the sewage from the town's residents and businesses.

Lunenburgdoesn'ttest harbour water: Mayor

"We have an industrialharbour, very busy harbour from all maritime uses and the outfall from our treatment plant is unfortunately in very close proximity to the entrance of fisherman's wharf," said Bailey.

She said the town doesn't encourage people to swim in the harbour and the harbour water isn't tested.

"If this is an issue that is concerning of people, you know, water quality and swimming, then I think that's something that the people that have a responsibility to look into that are asked about," said Bailey.

"It's beyond us, it's not something we're responsible for. I'm not saying it's not a concern or shouldn't be a concern, I'm just saying that there'snothing that I know we're not doing that we should be doing toaddress it."

Dr. David Maxwell, a retired physician in Lunenburg County, has mentored Bowles and said her testing methods "are absolutely solid."

"The authorities basically don't do any testing, so it's being left up to the citizenry and to Stella Bowlesto do the testing on what the bacterialevels in the waterways are," said Maxwell.