No such thing as BLUE water in the Petitcodiac Estuary

People are often misinformed about the Petitcodiac. Even some Hydrologist do not initially understand where the Mud in front of Moncton is coming from. The general *feeling* is that it comes out of the Lake but nothing could be further from the truth, it comes in from Fundy Bay!

The following quote is comes from the Petitcodiac EIA –Summary of Public Participation chaired by George Bouchard with Science Advisor Dr. Graham Daborn and Dr. Michael Davies Modelling advisor:

"The typical pattern of sediment behaviour during summer months in macrotidal estuaries such as the Petitcodiac is for fine sediments to be brought up the estuary on the flood tide because of the high current velocities; on the ebb, water velocities tend to be lower than on the flood, and hence the sediment-carrying capacity is also lower."

People who are expecting a Blue River in front of Moncton are in for a rude awakening when they realize that more of the River, all the way to Salibury will look just as it does in front of Moncton. And become as contaminated too.

The following picture show how drastically different the area above the causeway looks when the gates are open compared to being closed.



The seasonal nature of the Tidal portion of the Petitcodiac River has always been to fill up with silt during low flow conditions associated with the Summer Months, and for the river to open up in Fall, over Winter with ice-scour and in Spring with the ice melt and Spring freshette. This cyclic pattern happened every year just as it does currently the only difference is that it occurred all the way up to Salisbury, and now happens below the causeway.

There is also a lot of propaganda put out by proponents of the removing the causeway, stories like the: River is dying, the River is choking, soon you will be able to walk across the Mud choked River,... When in fact the muddy portion of the Petitcodiac is actually an Esturay with movement of water going in both directions. Upstream of the causeway the water moves downstream and flow clear and clean. The Media photographs the Esturay in late Summer during the lowest water flow periods of the year,...

Once the causeway was put in place the sediment that shifted around with the tides, all the way up to Salisbury, were immediately deposited downstream of the causeway where most of it remains today. The River is not filling in any more today than it was hundreds of years ago, the channel is narrower near Moncton and the Seasonal cyclic pattern of sediment dispersal continues.

Increasing the opening in the causeway will redistribute more sediment, and more of the river will have a tendency to fill in with sediment during low water flow periods.

The only difference is that this now, since the causeway's construction occurs downstream in front of Moncton. Opening the causeway will return this cyclic siltation pattern back up to Salisbury so 21 more Kms. of the River will look like it does in Front of Moncton.

Aloha! NOT!