Town hires Stantec to monitor Frog Pond for next year

By Mark Squibb

CBS council this week hired Stantec Consulting to complete a groundwater monitoring program of the Frog Pond in Topsail at a cost of $30,000 plus HST.
The motion to hire the company was approved, and there was no further discussion of the matter by council.
Contacted after the meeting, property owner Randy Bell said Stantec will be keeping an eye on the pond’s water levels.
“They’re going to put meters around the area to measure the water during the next 12 months,” said Bell. “There wasn’t a whole lot said about it, but that’s what Stantec recommended the Town do. And I guess they have to look to the experts, they hired them, to see what happens. So, yes, I was disappointed nothing is happening, but I guess Stantec feels that’s what they have to do. And so, I can’t argue with that.”
Bell said he hopes a solution will be forthcoming following the 12-month period, and added the Town seems intent on correcting the situation.
The gully and wetland, which is much beloved by residents in Topsail and cherished by many residents as the place they learned to skate and play hockey, went dry last fall after a construction company hired by the Town installed water and sewer lines on the street. It isn’t clear if there was any provision made in the specifications for the project to protect the wetland.
Council hired Stantec in July to assess the pond and investigate what may have caused water levels in Frog Pond to drop, indeed for much of the time since, to disappear altogether.
The findings, which were presented to council in December, confirmed the water and sewer line construction diverted the surface runoff and below ground streams that fed the gully. Stantec’s report summarized the problem and it’s cause but did not present any solutions on how to fix. Mayor Darrin Bent, at the time, said those solutions would be forthcoming in a follow-up report. There was no mention of that report at this week’s council meeting.