Nova Scotia Power crews at work on Waterloo Street on Monday. (Rick Conrad photo)
A power outage in parts of Liverpool has closed two schools and some downtown businesses for the day.
Wickwire Academy and South Queens Middle School are closed because of the power outage just before 5 a.m. Monday.
Nova Scotia Power says it’s because of a “transmission interruption”. It affects 728 customers. The company originally said Monday morning it expected power to be restored by 3 p.m. But its outage map now says power should be restored by 8 p.m.
The outage has hit parts of downtown Liverpool and extends to Old Port Mouton and White Point roads.
A downed power line briefly trapped students inside a bus Monday afternoon.
Shortly after 3:00pm a bus carrying 23 students on route 122 from Liverpool Regional High School, South Queens Middle School and John C Wickwire Academy, encountered the power line on Barss Street in Liverpool.
Captain John Long of the Liverpool Fire Department explains what led to the downed line.
“Another vehicle had hit the pole, or rubbed the pole and pulled the mast off the house. The bus came along and didn’t notice the low-hanging wire and so it got tangled up in it,”said Long. “As soon as they realized what they were in they stopped the bus and called for help.”
South Shore Regional Centre for Education officials contacted the parents of the 23 students on board to make them aware of the situation.
Nova Scotia Power, Liverpool Fire Department, and RCMP worked together to remove the line from the bus.
The ordeal lasted about an hour but with no air conditioning and temperatures approaching 30 degrees in the mid-afternoon, the only relief students had from the heat was to open the windows.
Liverpool Fire Department provided students with bottled water when they were able to exit the bus.
Some parents arrived to pick up their children from the incident site.
SSRCE Communications Coordinator Ashley Gallant says students were checked out by EHS before being released.
Gallant credits the quick actions of the bus driver for ensuring the safety of everyone on the bus.
“Really have to give some recognition to the bus driver who immediately recognized that something wasn’t right and stopped, according to procedures and contacted Nova Scotia Power, as we should,” said Gallant. “So it’s really the best outcome here. Everybody was safe and no injuries.”
Olivia and Garfield Gallant-Zwicker alongside the Mersey River. Photo Ed Halverson
A brother sister team at South Queens Middle School are part of classes hoping their science experiment will lead to a cleaner Mersey River.*
Two classes of grade-seven students have been testing sites up and down the Mersey since October tracking levels of enterococci bacteria in the water.
Garfield Gallant-Zwicker says they were inspired by teacher Jill Leuschner’s lessons about another student who took on a similar mission.
“We started learning about Stella Bowles and personal empowerment, which is where you feel like you can make positive change,” said Gallant-Zwicker. “Stella had tested the LaHave River so that gave us the idea to test the Mersey River.”
Gallant-Zwicker says the results of that testing were not good.
“The level is 70, you should not swim and [at] 170ml, the water should not come in contact with your skin. We had over 170,” said Gallant-Zwicker.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, enterococci are indicators of the presence of fecal material in water and, therefore, of the possible presence of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. These pathogens can sicken swimmers and others who use rivers and streams for recreation.
The siblings brought their findings to Region of Queens Council in the hope the municipality would take action to stop whatever was polluting the river.
Mayor Darlene Norman explained, unfortunately, there is little the region can do on its own.
“As a municipality, we can not go traipsing across people’s properties,” said Norman. “We are legally not allowed, besides, it’s a homeowner’s responsibility to have a functioning system.”
Garfield’s sister Olivia Gallant-Zwicker says they didn’t get as much support as they hoped but council did point them in the right direction.
“We were kind of hoping that council would help us more. They did encourage us to go right to (Queens-Shelburne MLA) Kim Masland and (MP for South Shore-St. Margarets) Bernadette Jordan, which we did,” said Gallant-Zwicker.
Regional council did go a step further and wrote a letter on behalf of the students to the provincial environment minister.
The response from then Minister Gordon Wilson said, “Nova Scotia Environment does not undertake water quality studies or prepare/undertake remediation plans. In instances where water quality impairments are suspected, the development, funding, and undertaking of these types of projects are often led by local organizations, to which we may provide guidance upon request.”
The students decided to reach out to the same organization that had worked with Stella Bowles, Coastal Action.
Assistant director Shanna Fredericks says she will join the students in collecting samples and conduct what is known as parallel testing to validate their results.
“The kids are going to collect their water samples as they normally do and test them with the equipment that they’ve been using and I’m going to collect some samples right alongside them and take them to our lab in the city, so an accredited laboratory. We’ll have those samples tested at the lab and then we’ll compare the results and see how they line up,” said Fredericks.
Olivia Gallant-Zwicker says once they had taken the water samples, their process is relatively simple.
“We incubated it for 72 hours,” said Gallant-Zwicker. “After that, all the dots on the cards would show up and, [it was a] surprising amount.”
Fredericks says to see young people tackle these large problems is inspiring.
“It’s just great to see these kids feeling empowered and passionate about environmental issues and being able to follow in Stella’s footsteps and see that they can actually make a difference,” said Fredericks.
Now that they’ve found their community partner, the students will continue taking water samples from the Mersey and documenting their findings.
Garfield Gallant-Zwicker says their end goal is simple.
“We’re hoping to see at the end of this that our water will return to how it used to be, nice and clean, so then people can swim into it.”
*The story has been changed to reflect the two classes of SQMS students involved in the water testing project.
