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WAVERLEY:<\/strong> A former local councillor in Fall River is taking issue with the municipality\u2019s stance on its phosphorus bylaw and it being trumped by provincial approval of a contentious development on Fall River Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the community meeting hosted by Councillor Cathy Deagle Gammon, and with MP Darrell Samson and MLA and Advanced Education Minister Brian Wong as panel members in attendance at the Waverley Legion, Barry Dalrymple took time to point out his disappointment that the by-law he was one to work on was not being followed in regards to the development known as the Carr Farm development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to HRM planning staff, because the provincial Department of Environment and Climate Change approved a sewage treatment plant that meets its standards, that approval overrides any development bylaws\/policies the municipality has on its books, including the net-zero phosphorus rules created as part of the River-lakes Secondary Planning Strategy of the Municipal Planning Strategy for Planning Districts 14 and 17, in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”31″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”148″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the meeting, Dalrymple was one of the speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He didn\u2019t mince words when given the chance to speak, focusing on the HRM ignoring its own net-zero phosphorus by-law\u2014one he worked on when he was councillor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s been some talk about the sewage treatment plant associated with the development on the Carr property, and I don\u2019t care what level, municipal or provincial talks about whatever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dalrymple was the chair of HRM\u2019s environmental committee and spent two-and-a-half years studying and developing a phosphorus neutral downloading bylaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the time, approximately 10 years ago, it was widely hailed across Canada as the foremost treatment and best bylaw passed by any municipality in all of Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRegardless of whoever tries to get around that, that bylaw has been thrown to the wayside, turfed into the garbage, and run over on that development. It is not phosphorus neutral, not in any way, shape, or form.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”34″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”7″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the by-law backgrounder from HRM planning documents in 2012, it said the intent of the policy is to protect the Shubenacadie Lakes from further deterioration by controlling the amount of phosphorus emitted into the receiving waters from large scale development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Phosphorus is a chemical constituent that naturally occurs in the environment and from human activities such as the application of fertilizers and human waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Phosphorus can become bound up in soils, vegetation, and rocks if it does not exceed the natural capacity of the environment to absorb it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An abundance of phosphorus can be released from land development activity which can cause a lake to become eutrophic long before its natural time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n