Town does an about face on Frog Pond foul up

By Mark Squibb/November 25, 2022

After stonewalling residents of Frog Pond Road for several weeks with assurances the water will return on its own next spring to the gully that bears the street’s name, the Town of Conception Bay South is now promising to take action right away to refill the depleted pond.

The famous Frog Pond was emptied this fall during water and sewer installation on the street when construction redirected the water sources that feed the wetland.

After The Shoreline reported the residents’ frustration last week, a trio of local politicians, including Topsail – Paradise MHA Paul Dinn, CBS Deputy Mayor Andrea Gosse and public works chairman Gerard Tilley, visited the pond to meet with residents and examine the situation firsthand.

On Wednesday, five Town officials and three staff from the Town’s engineering consulting firm, SNC Lavalin, met with a delegation of six residents for nearly an hour. This time the message was much different.

“They have our position and understand what needs to be done loud and clear,” said resident Peter Dunn, afterwards. “They are going to try to run a hose from the river down to the gully for now and were also talking about digging the road up and putting a culvert by the stream.

Someone from the Town was also available for an interview this week, which wasn’t the case last week when Ward 1 councillor Shelley Moores, who represents the area, declined an interview and directed inquiries to Town staff.

Mayor Darrin Bent, who interrupted his vacation this week to call The Shoreline, explained he was first informed of the problem by a resident on Wednesday, November 16 — the day before flying out of the province for a holiday.

“The situation at Frog Pond is as big a concern for us as it is for area residents,” said Bent. “And we’re working with area residents to try and find a solution for it. Since this has come to our attention, we are on it. We are trying to find a solution.”

Bent has been in touch with the Town’s engineering staff to stay updated and helped arrange Wednesday’s meeting between staff and residents.

“We’ve come away from that meeting looking towards a number of options to try and rectify the situation,” said Bent. “We’re working with the provincial environment people, and our engineers and our consultants are working toward options to find a resolution. We’d like to see one as soon as possible, but we’re not sure that that is going to be the case… We want to get this fixed as soon as possible, but we also want to get it done right so that we’re making sure that what we do is not going to affect something else negatively.”

Bent said he doesn’t think the drying out of the Frog Pond was due to an error during construction, or to an engineering oversight.

“Our understanding is that the water in that area comes from natural water runoff, groundwater, and it continues to fill,” said Bent. “When the road was torn up for water and sewer for that project there for the residents, and put back in, that has changed how the run off and groundwater is travelling, and it’s not going directly back into Frog Pond. Now, our understanding is that normally these things rectify themselves over a period of time — the water will find a way (back) once the roadwork settles, and so forth, and the problem will dissipate. However, we’re trying to find, along with the residents, as well as with our engineers and provincial engineers, options that we can maybe do something in the meantime to bring that along quicker.”

Bent said it’s not the first time the Town has seen this particular issue.

“Wells have been affected in the past by roadwork, the natural ground wells that people have,” said the mayor. “It’s not uncommon that natural areas of water that are there from runoff or some sort of groundwater buildup in marshy areas, for them to be affected when roadwork goes in. I guess the problem here is that residents have seen, and we have all seen, the Frog Pond, when it does drain low, fill back up again. We had some heavy rain a few weeks ago, and that didn’t seem to happen. So, the residents were concerned that something was altered that may affect it in the long term, and that was our concern as well. We don’t want to see this affected in the long-term, we want to ensure that the water that has naturally flowed there will flow back there.”

Bent said the issue wasn’t forecasted by the Town’s engineering staff and was certainly not intentional, but, again, was simply a natural result of the work, as the Town has seen elsewhere — though maybe not of the same magnitude.

“This does occur from time to time,” said Bent. “But Frog Pond is a little different. Frog Pond is not just a ditch or a marshy area. Frog Pond is a local attraction, and something that has historical and sentimental meaning to a lot of people in the area, myself included. I don’t live far from that area. And we want to see this rectified, the best way possible. Not rectifying Frog Pond is not an option for this council.”

Costs, if any, associated with work to restore the pond are too far off yet to estimate.

“I can’t say that there will be a price tag with this,” said Bent. ‘What I can say is that we’re looking at the options now. It will take us a couple of days to sort through the options to see what the best way is to proceed. We will know more then. But the price tag is not my issue right now. Rectifying Frog Pond is my issue right now.”

When asked if the tender specifications for the project spelled out protection for the gully, which is literally just several feet from the side of the road, Bent said he hasn’t seen the document, but that it would have been given the stamp of approval from the provincial government, and no work would have been undertaken until that approval was granted.

According to the permit issued for the project by the provincial Environment Department, “all operations must be carried out in a manner that prevents damage to land, vegetation, and watercourses, and which prevents pollution of bodies of water,” and that “any areas adversely affected by this project must be restored to a state that resembles local natural conditions. Further remedial measures to mitigate environmental impacts on water resources can and will be specified, if considered necessary in the opinion of this Department.”

The permit also specifies that “the Permit Holder and its agent(s), subcontractor(s), and consultant(s) shall operate the said Project and its systems and works in a manner which does not cause any water related and/or environmental problems, including but not limited to problems of erosion, deposition, flooding, and deterioration of water quality and groundwater depletion, in or outside the said Project areas. The Permit Holder and its agent(s), subcontractor(s), and consultant (s) shall be responsible for any and all damages associated with these problems caused as a result of changes, deficiencies, and inadequacies in the operational procedures by the Permit Holder or its agent(s), subcontractor(s), or consultant(s).”

“We were all shocked and saddened by what we saw,” MHA Paul Dinn said Wednesday. “Because going by the pictures of this lovely little pond and how it was used… and now it’s not there. It was really something to see. And the residents we were speaking with spoke to the history of it and were really taken aback by how it could happen… It’s disappointing for sure, and shocking at the same time. It’s amazing, really.”

Dinn said there are checks and balances, both municipal and provincial, to prevent damage to bodies of water such as the Frog Pond.

He noted the residents were told the problem may right itself.

“But I don’t know if that will happen or not,” said the MHA. “That is yet to be seen. But water is going to take the easiest route. And when they dug up the road to do the work there, the water would have taken that route.”

Asked whether he thinks the Province will get involved in the matter, Dinn only said there are penalties and fines that could be levied on anyone altering a body of water without approval.

For their part, the residents say they are pleased with the progress since airing their grievances in The Shoreline last week.

“The bottom line is that they know there’s a major issue there,” said Sandy Collins, who met with Dinn, Gosse, and Tilley on Saturday. “They’re going to look at and feed water into the Frog Pond from the brook to see if they can do that… But I do think they’re going to really try and rectify this problem, because it is a really big problem.”

Collins said she was surprised by the overwhelming attention the article garnered.

“I knew that people thought a lot about it (the gully), and I knew that people used the pond for various things, but I was surprised,” said Collins, who noted more and more people are driving by to have a look at the pond.

“I’m hopeful that something might happen for the good,” said Collins. “I’m giving the benefit of the doubt, because I think they really are trying to solve the problem.”