If you’ve passed by Walker Road where it meets the TransCanada recently, you may have noticed a large plot of previously forested land that’s been cleared.
About 12 acres of land currently owned by Drew Fraser of Cantech Construction is being prepared for sale, with all trees and greenery removed. The process is making way for AIL Group to build a new steel and plastic pipe factory at the site.
That has a group of citizens from the area concerned. 31 residents so far have signed a letter to Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau, town council, and CAO Jamie Burke, listing a number of questions and concerns about what’s happening at the Walker Road site.
Local resident Bonnie Swift helped write a letter, and says the biggest concern for her was the lack of information available to neighbouring residents before work started on the property. Swift is now retired, but worked as a civil environmental engineer for 25 years, much of that out west, on large scale industrial projects. She is also a previous Town of Sackville employee, having served as economic development officer from 2010 to 2012.
Swift says in her experience, it’s good corporate practice to provide information up front, “before a shovel even hits the ground.”
“The citizens up here want an open disclosure about the entire project,” says Swift, “where all those things can be answered, and they feel comfortable with the environmental due diligence going on in the project.”
“If you leave people in the dark,” says Swift, “and they’re thinking worse things than what you’re doing, then you’re not going to get community buy-in.”
The citizens’ letter outlines a number of potential environmental and aesthetic concerns from residents, the first of which is the potential for the factory to draw down groundwater supplies in the area that could affect neighbouring wells. Unlike other industrial developments in Sackville, the AIL Factory will be using on site water and septic systems, thanks to a recent bylaw change approved by town council in April.
The Walker Road site is part of a 177-acre zone designated by town council in 2009 for industrial use. But up until very recently, the town of Sackville has required all developments in industrial zones to be fully serviced by municipal water and sewer services. And since Walker Road had no services, it was not possible to develop anything there. That changed in April, when council approved an amendment to its planning bylaw that clears the way for unserviced development in an industrial zone. The amendment had gone to a public hearing at a March council meeting, which Swift says was news to her and her neighbours.
“It was very obscure,” says Swift. “Most of the people did not know that this had been rezoned for groundwater use.”
Peter Mesheau is a former Sackville town councillor and MLA, and for the past 15 years he’s been working with AIL Group. Mesheau says the Walker Road site is one of two sites that was considered for the new factory, but with the zoning change passed, the company has committed to Walker Road. He says he expects the factory to employ between 20 and 25 people. He acknowledges AIL Group will need to put in their own on site water and sewer services, which Mesheau says will “meet or exceed” provincial laws.
Back in March when the changes were up for first and second reading at Sackville Town Council, councillor Sabine Dietz asked about the impact on surrounding wells, specifically wondering how water usage would be monitored over time as the new industrial zone is developed. ECO 360 planner Lori Bickford told Dietz that provincial regulations surrounding wells would be in play, and that a plan for heavy water usage would trigger an environmental impact assessment.
“They still have to follow all the rules of the provincial regulations surrounding wells,” Bickford told council. And the changes to the zoning bylaw also rule out large on site sewer operations such as private sewage or wastewater treatment lagoons.
Mesheau says AIL’s manufacturing process does not use a lot of water, and also does not produce a significant amount of waste. He also says AIL Group has a good track record, and the company plans to incorporate things like solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations into their site. The 12 acre site will include a factory building and large outdoor storage area for the pipe products.
Swift would like more detail, such as the actual flow rate of the water to be used by the factory, and the plan for managing effluent, if there is any. Swift says many of her neighbours were also concerned about the clearcutting of the 12 acre property, especially during nesting season from migratory birds.
“We have a lot of biologists up here,” says Swift, joking that she could probably conduct an environmental impact assessment just with the skills of the people in the immediate area.
The letter also cites possible traffic and road impacts, on site chemical storage, effects on the watershed (which includes the Sackville reservoir, just on the other side of the highway,) and the visual impact on the area, which is just across the road from Beech Hill Park.
“There’s different ranges of views,” says Swift about her neighbours’ concerns, but all seem to agree on needing more information.
“I want information to feel comfortable that I know what I’m living beside,” says Swift. “If they’re doing something that will minimize groundwater use, I think that would be a huge peace of mind. But I think they have to come out and actually say that publicly.”
