Media Clipping — August 1, 2000, The Daily News, Halifax

Rural pollution harms N.S. image.

Editorial

UNLESS Nova Scotia intends to get back to 19th-century shipbuilding prominence with another Golden Age of Sail, it can be fairly certain its non-metro population will not boom and much of the province will remain pastoral countryside, quiet rivers and lakes, and long, clean beaches.

It's an image visitors sigh for. But how true is it, and how long will it last?

A disturbing view of the impact of pollution on Nova Scotia is found in an ecologist's report for the non-government Genuine Progress Index Atlantic.

It focuses on drinking-water quality in municipalities, but also finds serious environmental problems in rivers and lakes, and with the loss of wetlands to development.

Only 20 per cent of salmon rivers have healthy stock, because of the effects of acid rain from airborne industrial pollution, and in five years the catch of brook trout has dropped by half. A quarter of metro's lakes are dying from such causes as fertilizer run-off, says study author Sara Wilson.

The worst pollution, such as the Sydney tar ponds, is well understood, but the report indicates there is a lot more less obvious harm being done to the land and water.

Sharper attention is required by governments to continuing damage from water pollution, erosion, toxic effluent and wetlands depletion. These problems, if not solved, have an effect on quality of life and a billion-dollar tourist industry.

Copyright © 2000, The Daily News