Halifax Harbour

A harbour around which Halifax Regional Municipality sprung up/was built. On one side of the harbour used to be Dartmouth, a city comprised of several smaller towns accidentally merged together, and on the other, Halifax; the two together are connected by two huge suspension bridges, and were referred to affectionately as The Twin Cities. However, Halifax Regional Municipality sprang up as a merging of Halifax, Dartmouth, and three other near communities about 5 years ago, and people have been quite successful in pretending this never happened ever since.

Within this harbour an explosion, The Halifax Explosion, took place; a munitions ship collided with another ship causing a catastrophic explosion that destroyed much of both Halifax and Dartmouth.

A national disgrace. In a city that in some ways is a world leader in waste diversion, Halifax still pumps its sewage out through a big pipe into the harbour, with absolutely no treatment whatsoever. If you take the ferry to Dartmouth, it's not uncommon to see condoms floating on the water. The main pipe, by the way is right beside the wave sculpture on the waterfront. Look closely and follow the smell to find the outflow.

People in the city have been well aware of the sheer nastiness of this for decades, but still nothing has been done. Plans were made and tenders drawn up for a treatment plant, but the municipality decided it was too expensive. Their idea of a solution was to pump the stuff a little further out to sea to avoid the floaties.

The Sydney Tar Ponds are a similar example of sheer voluntary environmental pigheadedness in the Nova Scotia mentality.