'It's a mess': Tignish Shore residents upset over sludge dumped on local beach

Residents of a western P.E.I. community say Fisheries and Oceans Canada is ruining their local beach by dumping material dredged from a nearby harbour. 

Jamie Perry of Tignish Shore said there's no telling what could be in the dark grey sludge that now covers the sand along Myrick Shore Beach. 

While he may not know exactly what's in it, he and others in the area can definitely smell it. 

"My neighbour … has to close her windows across the road [when] the wind gets blowing east," Perry said. "So, it's not good. It smells like… rotten sewer.

"It's a mess and nobody here likes it." 

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, or DFO, is responsible for maintaining P.E.I.'s network of fishing harbours. It routinely dredges to deepen the channels, which helps prevent boats from running aground when entering the harbour. 

In a statement, DFO confirmed it hired a contractor to dredge nearby Tignish harbour and has received all the necessary permits and approvals from the province to dump the sediment at Myrick Shore.  

DFO said the volume of the dredged material is 2,245 cubic metres. That's close to the volume of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

"Dredged material is being placed on the beach, above the low water line but below the high tide line, and will naturally incorporate into the beach profile through wave and tidal action. This placement is an environmentally sustainable solution," the statement reads. 

"When sediment is initially removed from the marine environment, it typically has a dark colour, however it will turn to sand colour after a few days' exposure to the air."

Would they put this on any other beach? I don't think so, and I want it gone.— Violet Gaudet, Tignish Shore resident

Perry first noticed the slop covering the beach last Wednesday. During a visit from CBC News on Saturday, the sludge was still dark grey and was beginning to thicken like concrete as Perry tried to trudge through it. 

His neighbour, Violet Gaudet, noticed the sludge and the smell, too. 

Gaudet's lived in Tignish Shore all her life, and doesn't recall seeing dredged material dumped like this before.

"I'm disgusted," she said. "It's a bunch of crap that shouldn't have been put there. Would they put this on any other beach? I don't think so, and I want it gone." 

A spokesperson for P.E.I.'s Environment Department said in an email that testing on the material before it was disposed indicated it was free of contamination. 

The residents aren't so sure about that. 

'This slop is going into the water'

Perry thinks there has to be motor oil, metal and other materials from the bottoms of boats entering the harbour that sunk into the seabed. 

Both he and Gaudet are worried that the popular beach won't be so welcoming for visitors and area residents this summer. 

"The community should've been told, but they [did] it behind our backs, which is not right," Gaudet said. 

"I'll probably never go into the water again because this slop is going into the water. They say it's not going to hurt our ocean? I guess it is."