Town eyes how to limit climate change impact

Joe Harrison wishes he knew 10 years ago what he knows today about climate change. The sea at St. Andrews will likely rise about 0.8 meters -- 31 inches -- in 40 to 50 years, Eastern Charlotte Waterways' (ECW) Climate Change Program Manager Briana Cowie explained to about 35 people at a public session on January 19 at the Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Centre.
Harrison said afterwards that, had he known this at the time, he would have built his new house on the shore at St. Andrews three feet higher. He built his house higher than the old cottage that formerly stood on the site, "more by accident than design" because the contractor ran into hard digging, but the new house still sits three feet below street‑level. "At that time people really weren't thinking of this," he said while pointing to his property on a map.
Cowie spoke at the meeting and a second one on January 22 to get people thinking about the issue and to gather public input for a climate adaptation plan she hopes to present to town council next month. The New Brunswick Environmental Trust Fund provided money for the town of St. Andrews to contract with ECW to create a climate change adaptation plan. Cowie plans to present the draft to town council in February to allow time for comment and improvements by March 31, the deadline in the contract to adopt the plan. ECW also hopes to help other municipalities and the Southwest New Brunswick Service Commission make plans to adapt to climate change.
"Adaptation" refers to protecting streets, houses, public buildings, wharves, sewer and water systems and other assets from higher water and other effects of climate change "to build a more resilient community," Cowie says. She hopes to start working with municipalities next month on mitigation plans to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, which cause climate change, according to climate scientists.
"This is the beginning of the climate change adaptation plan," St. Andrews Mayor Doug Naish said in an interview. "It's going to deliver us a plan that will be, I hope, instructive for council to make decisions about what adaptation measures we wish to take."
The province has identified St. Andrews -- on the tip of a low‑lying peninsula with tide water lapping at both sides -- as one of the most vulnerable places in New Brunswick to climate change, the mayor says. Federal and provincial governments could start demanding measures to cope with climate change as a condition of funding projects. "They're going to want to know that this infrastructure is going to be protected from climate change," he says.
ECW presented scenarios on where water levels might reach by 2055 versus 2100 and asked people to comment via computer or paper forms on possible measures in the three priority areas of Market Square, Patrick Street and Indian Point. "We are not anywhere close to putting those [measures] in place in St. Andrews, but someday we may have to tell people that your property is unbuildable," Naish says. "We do have to have a plan that says if you build here, we can provide you with infrastructure, and we have some sort of guarantee that you're not going to be devastated by climate change."
He believes the sewage plant is safe, built on high ground. He praises the owners of the former Cottage Craft site for building the new structure three feet higher than the old one.
However, protecting the Market Square and Market Wharf area in the middle of town could cost $3.3 million, he says. The wharf is likely high enough, but this does not stop the relentless tides below from damaging the substructure.
St. Andrews will need help from the federal and provincial treasuries. "Some of it's going to come down to the will to do it, but also a lot of it's going to come down to the ability to pay for it, because this is really expensive work in some cases," the mayor says.
The mayor endorses Saint John Energy's plan to harness wind energy. The municipal utility announced on January 17 that it would call for proposals for a $30 million project to construct five to 10 wind turbines in the Spruce Lake Industrial Park to generate between 20 to 40 megawatts of energy. The project would save costs and reduce greenhouse gases, furthering the province's climate change and renewable energy plans, a news release states.
"Alternative energy sources are part of that equation," says Naish, who also puts in a plug for harnessing the same Fundy tides that destroy wharves and other infrastructure. "Why can't we harness it? We have all this energy running around in the water."