Volunteers clean up Saint John's Marsh Creek

Volunteers picked up more than three tonnes of garbage over the weekend at Saint John’s Marsh Creek.

Tim Vickers, the executive director of Saint John's Atlantic Coastal Action Program, led more than 100 volunteers in the 16th annual clean-up over the weekend.

He said he hopes these initiatives will help change the reputation of the wetland.

"In Saint John, because of how it's been treated, essentially people have turned their back to it and look away from it," Vickers said.

"We want to spin that around and turn it again from the liability that people view it as into the asset it should be viewed as."

For more than a century raw sewage has been dumped in the creek.

But the sewage will stop being sent to the creek with the completion of the Saint John Harbour clean up project later this year.

The six-year, $99-million project will divert raw sewage from Marsh Creek to a facility at Redhead.

The restoration project includes 20 pump stations and several kilometres of sewer pipes.

For many people, Marsh Creek is the smelly stretch of water that travels through Courtney Bay and into the Bay of Fundy.

But Vickers said these clean-up projects may eventually show people that Marsh Creek is a beautiful area.

"The reality is Marsh Creek, the majority of it, is beautiful, clear water in rolling hills, nice scenery, a real hidden gem in the city of Saint John," he said.

After the Saint John Habour clean-up project is finished, John Campbell, a municipal engineer, said the infamous smell will disappear.

"We didn't build it to get rid of the smell but yeah, that will be a pleasant side effect," he said.