West side Saint John residents form group to push for sea wall

People in Saint John's Sand Cove neighbourhood have formed a community group to push for construction of a seawall they believe will save their homes.

• Saint John's Sand Cove Road threatened by slope failure

The homes are located along a slope overlooking the Bay of Fundyand over the past year the land beneath several of the homes has shifted, something engineers believewill continue to occur.

Sand Cove Road itself is threatened and has been reduced to a single lane as a precaution.

The residents believe a 165-meter rock seawall would halt the slide of the slope, therebyprotectingtheir homes and the road above.

"You see them doing that sort of thing," said Willa Mavis, one of the homeowners in the area. "It's pretty commonplace, we're not reinventing the wheel or anything."

Mavis says heavy rock seawalls have successfully been used to preserve slopes in at least three city locations, including a section of Sand Cove itselfand an area along City Line.

"We've got to stop those waves," said Mavis. "And the only way you can stop those waves is to build a breakwater."

Phillip Greenlaw has experience with a seawall.

Erosion is nature and it's hard to stop- Roly MacIntyre, former MLA

The municipality added heavy rock to the slope below his City Line home in west Saint John eight years ago after the building shifted, breaking his chimney.

A few meters from his house, a far more substantial seawall extends south to the Partridge Island breakwater,in place for at least 35 years.

"From there around to here, there's no erosion," said Greenlaw.

He says his own seawall now requires maintenance after a stormsurge in the falltook out some of the rock.

It is not clear which level of government is responsible in such cases, although there are examples where both the city and the province have stepped in to assist homeowners.

'It's hard to stop'

Former MLA Roly McIntyrerepresented Red Head in east Saint John in 1995 when several coastal homes were threatened by slope failure.

The Liberal government of the day purchased or moved three of the buildings andthen used the land to build a road to the beach, where thousands of tires were installed in an attempt to stop erosion.

The attempt failed asall but the largest tires, those from tractors, were washed away.

"Erosion is nature and it's hard to stop," said McIntyre. "And over the years land does change and if you live on a shore where there's any kind of a steep bank, you need to be very careful."

McIntyre says heavy rock is the only way to prevent erosion, but concedes it is expensive and requires environmental approvals.

Greg Norton, a Saint Johncouncillor, says the citycannot commit to a solution until it sees the results of an engineering report expected later in January.

"We have to have a much better understanding of what's happening beneath the surface," said Norton.

He says the city is making arrangements to meet with residents in February.