Municipalities, residents decry gaps in N.S. coastal protection as 'death by 1,000 cuts'
When Jessica Bradford first spotted a square patch of dirt infill as she drove along the Queens County coastline in Western Head, N.S., she had one thought.
"That's not going to last very long," Bradford recalled thinking, standing last week near the section of infill as waves washed up on a rocky beach just steps away.
It's unclear whether the infill project on private property along Shore Road follows proper guidelines. But even if it does, Bradford and some municipal leaders say the situation represents a major gap in Nova Scotia's approach to coastal protection.
Bradford said she first noticed work being done on the small strip of land along the roadside beside the beach two weeks ago.
She said trees and grasses were removed to allow for heavy equipment to spread dirt over the site. The move made her concerned the loss of established root systems would speed up erosion and worsen flooding on the road, Bradford said, which often becomes submerged during storms.
"We know the importance of living shorelines," Bradford said. "It made me wonder, how was this allowed to happen?"
When Nova Scotia's Progressive Conservative government decided to not proclaim the Coastal Protection Act that would have brought in provincewide rules last February, it said municipalities could enact own bylaws on the issue.
It also released mapping tools and information, so property owners could make an "informed decision" about protecting their land and buildings from sea-level rise and erosion.
But Bradford said the Region of Queens Municipality — which has land-use bylaws that address coastal setbacks — told her it was not aware of the Shore Road project, and had not received any permit applications for the site. Provincial staff have told Bradford they are looking into whether the project followed their rules and had the correct permits.
CBC News reached out to the property owner but did not receive a response.
Scott Christian, Queens mayor, said legislation allows municipalities to regulate infill and removal of vegetative buffers on a coastline — but only when it's related to development. If a property owner doesn't plan to build anything on their land right away, infill projects fall under provincial jurisdiction.
"I think that's problematic because I think it opens up the door where people could just say, 'Well, I'm not planning on developing,'" Christian said.
"Even if a structure isn't envisioned on a property, I think we need to protect against the problematic removal of natural vegetation along our shoreline. So we need to do better."
Christian said he's had residents complain of seven current Queens County projects where vegetation was removed or infill brought in, including Western Head.
"I appreciate their advocacy, but we simply don't have a leg to stand on," Christian said.
Christian also said municipalities can only govern private property above the high-water mark. Anything happening below that, such as armoured walls reaching into the water, falls under provincial jurisdiction.
If infill stretches farther into navigable waters or fish habitat, federal regulations could also apply.
A large infill project featuring a rock wall on Little Crescent Beach in Lunenburg County brought many complaints from residents, and helped push the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg to bring in its own coastal bylaws last summer.
Recent work on the site shows two wooden buildings coming up to the edge of the wall.
The municipality's mayor, Elspeth McLean-Wile, said the new bylaw requires setbacks of 30 metres from the water's edge, but the project's development permits were issued before the new rules came in.
However, McLean-Wile said there's still nothing the municipality can do to prevent a similar armoured wall project if it falls below the high-water mark like in the Crescent Beach case.
"I think this is a misstep on the part of the provincial government," McLean-Wile said. "There are probably other issues as well, but infilling is one that really frustrates our residents.
"These are the holes that continue to exist."
Nicolas Winkler, coastal adaptation co-ordinator for the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, said he continues to see coastal infill cases around Nova Scotia he's concerned about. But he said the full extent of the issue is difficult to know, because many are only visible from the water and are "out of sight, out of mind" for residents or government officials.
"That is death by 1,000 cuts. It's these small, consistent … changes to our coastline that, over time, will add up to a coast that we may not recognize," Winkler said.
Both McLean-Wile and Christian said they would prefer to see provincewide rules, and don't agree with the provincial government's comments that municipalities are best fit to handle the file because they know their communities best.
If the province won't bring in the Coastal Protection Act, Christian and McLean-Wile said there needs to be a fulsome conversation between both levels of government about addressing the gaps left behind.
"There's problematic infilling along our shoreline now. And so we need like pretty urgent action on this," Christian said.
If legislation is changed to allow municipalities to regulate infill projects regardless of development plans, Christian said the move must come with far more financial and staffing resources than what has been offered so far.
The province has provided template bylaws, and $1.3 million to the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities for local governments to use on consulting fees for climate change and sustainability analysts.
CBC News asked the Department of Environment and Climate Change to respond to the concerns about municipalities having no power over many infill and armoured rock projects, but they did not answer the question.
"We have moved forward to what we feel is a better approach to protecting our 13,000 [kilometres] of diverse coastline," department spokesperson Cindy Porter said in an email.
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