CREDIT: FILE PHOTO

One of the thousands of fish killed in the Little Sackville River this summer

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The plan to fix the poisoned Little Sackville River is complete, but the self-appointed stewards of the river are anything but happy.

“This is not a recovery plan that I can sign on to,” said Walter Regan, president of the Sackville Rivers Association.

But government regulators say they are doing all they can to bring the river and its thousands of fish back to life. And the company blamed for the damage says it’s doing more than it has to.

The plan was drawn up by Jacques Whitford Environment Ltd., for Atlantic Shopping Centres, the Sobeys-owned company that has taken responsibility for poisoning the river in July.

It proposes five things: remove debris from the river; monitor sediment and water quality for a year; monitor the river’s insects until their population recovers; measure how quickly the fish population recovers and release 6,000 salmon into the river.

The decision to release 6,000 salmon was arrived at after news reports that 4,000 fish were killed when a water-main break washed over pyritic slate, producing sulphuric acid.

But Regan says that number is extremely low, and he should know because it came from his group.

“We stopped counting at 4,000,” said Regan. “We just got tired of collecting fish.”

And putting 6,000 young hatchery salmon in the river will not result in 6,000 adult salmon, said Regan. His group, with the help of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, has been putting in 20,000 young salmon a year. Between 100 and 400 of those survive.

That restocking program is about to be discontinued because of a DFO cash crunch.

The river was declared dead, for all practical purposes, in 1985, and though it has come a long way, the numbers aren’t yet sustainable. Without a stocking program, the fish will gradually die out, Regan said.

That’s not the responsibility of Atlantic Shopping centres, said Stuart Blair, the company’s president.

“All of this is strictly voluntary,” said Blair. “We could have very legitimately sat back and waited for this to make its way through the courts.”

The recovery plan was approved by government regulators, said Blair, and they are the ones responsible for the river, not Regan’s association.

“That’s all we could ask for at this time,” said DFO’s Brian Jollymore. “We’re assessing damage … and what it would take to put the river back to what it was.”

The Environment Department has already charged New Glasgow contractor Marinus Verhagen Enterprises Limited for the fish kill, and says that more charges could be laid..

jwest@hfxnews.southam.ca