This is the story of one Nova Scotia Environment Inspector and their interactions with one company in Southwest Nova Scotia and the Annapolis Valley. If incredible waste of your tax dollars is something that sickens you, I suggest you stop reading now. If you don't have an appreciation of what a self governing profession is, I suggest you familiarize yourself before continuing. If you do, prepare to be amazed. The main thing to keep in mind here is that the NS Department of Environment is tasked with reducing the number and severity of adverse effects to the environment. That is their main objective. They have clearly lost their way.
Episode 1 - The Oil in the Well
Someone was unhappy with being evicted from their apartment building. That someone decided to get back at the landlord in a very irresponsible manner, by breaking the cap off the drilled well that served the building and dumping a quart of motor oil in. In time, people living there noticed and called the landlord, who called our Kentville office. This is a good reaction, as working in that office is a very experienced Professional Engineer, someone with a Masters Degree in Public Health Engineering, who had, for about 30 years, been the senior technical resource for all public health and environmental concerns for the Valley area in the Nova Scotia Department of Health and later, when the government stopped providing Public Health Engineering (you didn't know that, did you? NS is one of the few jurisdictions in North America without a chief public health engineer), with the NS Department of Environment.
That engineer went to the property and confirmed that there was a problem, and took samples that showed there was oil in the water. He then immediately advised the owner to open all the taps and pump the well down and keep pumping. This makes a lot of sense, because one quart of oil is not a lot, and most of it was probably not in the groundwater, and may never have left the casing of the well, other than to go into the plumbing.
In time, tests showed that there was no hydrocarbon residual and the Engineer, as the rules require, made up a report summarizing the event, the remediation, and documenting the success of the remediation.
This should have been the end of it. But in that office of the NS Department of the Environment, there exists someone apparently not very well versed in the technical aspects of their job, nor in an understanding of what a Professional Engineer is, and the laws and practices that govern the Profession of Engineering. This person, who we will call M, refused to accept the report because it was not done by a hydrogeologist. When it was pointed out to them that the qualifications of the Engineer in this case were more than enough to satisfy the regulations, instead of going, "ooops, my bad" they doubled down and dug in. Attempting to have the residents of the apartment building evicted and threatening to lay charges.
Their supervisor, the person who should have been there to bring common sense to the situation, was nowhere to be found. This despite their having worked with the Engineer for years and having relied upon them for similar advice for most all of that time. Instead, an unqualified new employee inspector was allowed to continue their baseless attempt to win some strange argument with the Profession of Engineering in Nova Scotia.
In the end, legal action and the direct involvement of Engineers Nova Scotia staff finally made this annoyance go away, but not until a lot of time, some of ours, and a lot more of the government employee's time (you were paying them to act like this) was wasted over nothing. There was a small adverse effect here that was properly addressed and mitigated by the actions of an experienced, qualified Professional. With no continuing impact. When that Professional signed their report, they were certifying that what was in it was true. There was no reason not to believe them.
Episode 2 - The Case of the Random Warning
This one actually involves me. It is without a doubt the most incredibly stupid thing I have witnessed in over 35 years of dealing with government. I really wish this had happened to more Engineers so that they would be more likely to believe me.
A good friend owns a farm, on which they were going to operate a small bakery. They would be generating about 5 gallons a day of water when washing up their pots and pans and work area. Knowing that I know a fair amount about septic systems, they asked me what they should do when they built the bakery. I told them that they could get an approval to hook a toilet and hand wash into their home septic system, but that the flour in the wash water would definitely plug up their field bed if allowed to go into that system. They asked what to do as they were considering just having a 5 gallon bucket and carrying it out to spread on the garden, but in winter that would not be practical. I suggested they might put in a holding tank for that sink only and have it pumped out on occasion. I gave them a sketch of what a holding tank would look like, and suggested that the Department of Agriculture might be able to help them to make sure that what they were doing was OK, as this is a farm ancillary business.
Flash forward to 6 months or so later, and I stop in to get some bread and visit. There is a nice new tank installed and I am advised that the neighbouring farmer come over twice a year to pump the tank out, and he mixes it with manure and spreads it on his hayfield. Very cool. Total proper sustainable agriculture and environmental responsibility to the point that it was a model of how to manage such a small, simple waste stream that really did not need to go to waste. They had had a local licensed installer put the tank in. So, as far as I knew they were kosher.
Then they decided they wanted to be able to sell bread at the roadside, to tourists and locals. Nice. But to do so, they were told by the licensing people that they had to have a proper toilet and hand wash. They had not yet done so. They built a piece on to their bakery, and I designed a way to connect that to the house system and it was approved. The flour water tank was there all along doing its job.
This approval prompted a visit from "the authorities", in their new police like uniforms. Instead of being concerned about the actual system that had health and environmental concerns, the toilet waste, the NSE Inspector obsessed about the 5 gallon a day holding tank for the flour washwater. They went home and issued a directive stating that it had to be 1000 imperial gallons (it was, apparently only 1000 US Gallons) and directed that it be pumped not for re-use on a farm field with animal manure, but to a human septage lagoon where it would take up space intended for septic tank solids. The NS Department of Environment actually directed someone to take clean re-useable bakery waste and pollute it by adding it to a septage lagoon. They ordered the creation of what is, by definition, an adverse effect.
Not to be outdone, this inspector (did I mention it was M again?) saw that the baker had used the sketch I had given them of another holding tank, and that it had an unsigned, undated photocopy of my stamp on one corner. It was the sketch I had given her to show her what a holding tank looked like in general, but was not at all what they ended up installing.
This inspector called me, and I happily explained to them what I had, and had not done, and that I was working under the assumption that the baker had permission under the Department of Agriculture for their tank, and that in my opinion, an elegant solution had been worked out. I said I would contact the baker and offer to help them with complying to this new (silly) order. I then immediately sent the baker an email to that effect. Still, in absence of any evidence, with no other correspondence or application or communication from me, the Inspector decided to write up an official warning under the Environment Act to me directing that I essentially go on to private land owned by someone else, and fix this tank "problem". When I had yet to do anything related to the holding tank other than, years prior, suggest that might work.
I was moderately unhappy with this. After all, in 35 years of doing this work, I had received one warning, over something I did that was clearly better than the practice at the time, and that was subsequently adopted as standard practice when the Department (which had knowledgeable people running it at the time) realized my way was better. I was upset, but I just blew it off to some junior ex-military inspector being overly officious and demonstrating no ability to exercise judgement or common sense, and let it go.
Having heard nothing back from my email to the baker, I sent another email. Still nothing. Then one day they called me, telling me they were being interviewed by M who was trying to find a way to charge them and me, under the Environment Act. (remember, this is all about 5 gallons a day of flour detergent and water, basically what a camper throws over the lawn). Their attack on me was that I had lied to an Inspector because I had told them I would contact the baker to offer help but did not. I told the baker that yes, I had emailed them twice with no response, and assumed they had gone away for the season on a cooking gig. While we were talking they checked their email, and on my suggestion checked their junk mail. Oooops! There were my emails.
The baker then contacted the Department, showed them the emails, and told them what had happened. I had already copied one of them to the inspector, but they would not believe me. And this is important. As a Professional Engineer I have cannot mislead or lie to them under the Act that actually governs my practice. Yet this fool continued to try to entrap me, and wasted hours and hours of their time trying to enforce a directive that made things worse.
This is a case were was never any adverse effect nor was there ever any chance of one, yet one civil servant wasted days and days of time pursuing this tiny, environmentally responsible activity that performed far better than what they were trying to force upon the bakery.
Their supervisor, the person who should have been there to bring common sense to the situation, was nowhere to be found. It was all about their paper bureaucratic slavery to bureaucracy, and had nothing whatsoever to to with protecting the environment or serving the public. In spirit, anyway, this inspector was violating two Provincial Acts, the Public Service Act and The Environment Act, and, because they are not a professional Engineer, by trying to direct a Professional Engineer to do a specific task, possibly violating the Engineering Act.
I took this as far as the Deputy Minister, along with some other issues. When lip service was all we received, I followed up with the Department, accusing them of "dancing around a bonfire of bureaucracy". For this horrible statement, I did get a response, an hysterically funny warning terming that term to be abuse of their staff. I cherish that letter. It demonstrates how utterly useless and what a waste of time that Department now is.
And oh yes, this inspector is still at it. Apparently with full support of their masters.
Episode 3 - The Attack on the Cancer Kids
My company did the design of the road, some of the layout and the sewage treatment for Brigadoon Village children's camp at 50% rates - we don't have much cash to contribute, but sometimes we can do so "in kind". Because the occupants of this facility are sometimes on active chemotherapy treatment, it has some design choices that are not normal and there is someone at the camp whose job it is to keep it working.
In discussions with the operator of the treatment plant, discussing ways to manage freezing of some elements during a cold winter, I mentioned that there was an inspector working out of Kentville that he should try to avoid. I mentioned that the guy was apparently ex-military and pretended like he was some super cop, looking for any tiny infraction. The response I received was telling.
Here is what the Brigadoon operator replied:
"I am very much aware about the Kentville office issues as we had a directive sent to our lawyers in regards to our water treatment system because the inspector did not notify me he was coming so when he showed up and I wasn’t here he wrote us up for not producing the paperwork! That is now resolved but he would not audit the septic (when he was here) because that is a different audit!"The NSE representative (surprise! This is M again!) showed up unannounced at a cancer kids camp and because the part time operator was not there, they actually went to the crazy extreme of sending an official directive to their lawyers! Can you imagine anyone so self important and officious as that? Their supervisor, the person who should have been there to bring common sense to the situation, was nowhere to be found.
Episode 4 - The Sneak Attack
Nova Scotia Environment has regions in which there is a Manager, and an Engineer for each. Our Mr. M works in one of those. No one there seems to be overseeing his work, or caring what he is spending his time on. And if they are, well then they share the blame here even more than I am assuming.
So our Mr. M either on his own initiative, or under some direction from someone not thinking straight, or legally, began what we call "dumpster diving" - going back looking at projects done by us that were done or almost done, and trying to uncover misdoings. This is a technician (maybe not even that trained) investigating Professional Engineers in a selective manner under the guise of the enforcement of an Act that does not govern their professional practice.
In doing so, while digging in files not in his own district, but on the other side of the Province, he found a number of on-site sewage disposal systems that had been installed with what appeared to be discharges to a ditch, done without an approval, but under a Notification. Clearly, not understanding the technical aspects of the job was not a hindrance, as he, without talking to the area Engineer whose office had accepted the submissions to the Department, our Mr. M revoked the notification approvals. And get this, these were for systems designed by a Professional Engineer, submitted based upon the correct protocols, and already installed and functioning properly. They were for systems that addressed an ongoing malfunction - a risk to the environment and public health, that were dealt with properly (they had to be done by an Engineer), and were installed properly, and being happily used by homeowners.
No Professional Engineer with the Department with any experience in this field responded to any questions from the homeowners or the Engineer. (the Engineer who had the on-site program dropped into their lap has virtually no experience, and only a casual understanding of the field). The owner has all the paper from the Department and the Engineer they ever need, yet our zealot assumed he could just cancel them after the fact. In complete ignorance of the difference between Professional Engineering and someone with a backhoe that NSE allows to choose and install a standard system, he then was then allowed (by who?) to actually lay charges against the Engineer for practicing Engineering while following the Standard laid out for them to follow in their own legislation. No one looked at it who actually knew anything, apparently. And this will be going to court (more waste of everyone's time). So no one will say anything because it is "before the courts". And remember, this is where there was an environmental impact happening that was identified, confirmed, and then fixed with the best available solution by a licensed installer following plans done by a Professional Engineer with the most experience of doing this work of any on NS, and it resulted in the elimination of the impact on the environment and risk to public health.
So in short, the Department is appearing to sanction to prosecution of Professional Engineers who follow their Standard and act to eliminate environmental harm and public health risk in a timely manner. And in addition, is trying to tell homeowners they can't use their septic systems?
The local engineer just gives the Hogan's Heroes Schultz defence "I know nothing! I see nothing!"
This is a civil "servant" being paid, running around trying to plug holes that don't exist. Why he is left to spend his time in such a detrimental manner, to the reputation of the Department and to the waste of the Department's budget is inexplicable.
Continuing Episodes
Yes, there is more. Lots more. Some even worse, where The Department is deliberately misinterpreting their own rules, to try to make some obscure point of control and authority over the Profession of Engineering, something they have absolutely no business doing, and again, as always, at the expense of the Public and to the detriment of the environment that, it seems so long ago, they used to protect.
