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Environmental Impact Assessment
On April 30, 2002, the NB Minister of
the Environment and Local Government announced that an Environmental
Impact Assessment was needed in order to examine four options
regarding modification of the Petitcodiac Causeway. The four options
to restore fish passage at the Petitcodiac Causeway were proposed
by Eugene Niles in his 2001 report. They are:
| 1. Replacing
the fishway |
| 2. Opening the gates during
peak migration |
| 3. Permenantly opening the
gates |
| 4. Replacing
the causeway with a partial bridge |
The 3-year $4 million Federal/Provincial
sponsored EIA's main focus is to predict the positive and negative
environmental effects of all 4 options to restore fish passsage
in the Petitcodiac River System.
In April of 2004, experts from the consulting
firm AMEC working on the EIA, showed that with current fish passage
technologies available, it would be impossible to design or maintain
a fishway that would accomodate all fish species in the Petitcodiac
River. These experts also showed that since the ten species of
fish studied needed passage at night and day throughout each month
of the year, the second option would not be viable either.
The scientists will therefore focus the
remainder of their research on the effects of permanently opening
the causeway gates and replacing the causeway with a partial bridge
to restore free flow in the estuary. Their final results are expected
in December of 2004 and the final recommendations will be made
public in the spring of 2005.
The Petitcodiac Riverkeeper
has been an official stakeholder throughout the EIA process by
submitting feedback in the form of reports and analysis.
For more information:
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