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Tall Tales on Alton Gas From The Environment Minister.
The full text of the Ministerial dismissal is here.
One of the grounds on which the Minister dismisses the EAC appeal is that there is allegedly no basis for the EAC contention that the Department of Environment did not address the "Effects on fish homing abilities."
This is the crucial question of whether brine levels will significantly and adversely effect "recruitment" of adult fish to spawning.
The Minister admits that "The CRA report (the KMK Mi'kmaq Rights Initiave commissioned 'third party review') noted below did identify concerns with homing (recruitment to spawning)." The Minister goes on to say, "however the CRA study indicated the contribution of brine at the mouth of the estuary to be negligible."
The CRA study points out that proponent studies raise the questions of, but do not address, the effects of brine discharge on fish smelling their way back to their spawning grounds. The consultants only go on to suggest possibilities that recruitment of adults to spawning may not be dependent only on olfactory factors such as changes in salinity.
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