By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Repairing the damage done to a Bromont marsh by a botched public works intervention will take time, Mayor Louis Villeneuve and director general Francis Dorion warned at the April 2 council meeting.

In mid-March, a group of local birdwatchers informed city officials that several acres of marshland in the Parc Scientifique de Bromont nature reserve had been drained. The city concluded that the draining was caused by damage from a botched intervention to repair a beaver dam.

“That was a major error, and we are in favour of transparency – we want to explain what happened and the measures of mitigation and restoration we want to put in place in collaboration with our partners,” Dorion said.

He explained that in early November 2023, due to heavy rain, water levels rose in the marsh and water started to overflow onto adjacent agricultural and industrial land. To attempt to lower the water level, employees in the city’s public works department breached a beaver dam over the Ruisseau Dozois and a second dam in the marsh. “Was it urgent to act? Clearly not. Was it necessary to do something eventually? Yes, things couldn’t stay like that.”

Dorion explained that the employees had legally used a rented excavator for a similar intervention the same day near Lake Bromont, “but on a nature reserve, the rules are different.”

He said the town learned about the situation about three weeks ago from members of the Club d’ornithologues de Brome-Missisquoi, and officials went to the scene to verify what the birdwatchers said. The dam breach in the marsh, they confirmed, had essentially “emptied” the marsh.

He said the city was looking at the decision-making process and the information and onsite observations that informed the decision-making process. “We’re not going to conduct a public trial of [individual employees.]”

He said measures would be taken to make sure similar blunders never happened again. “We want to restore the situation as soon as we can,” he said. “The earlier we do it, the less [long-term] damage there will be.”  The city is working with the Quebec environment ministry, the MRC Brome-Missisquoi, the Club des ornithologues and beaver management specialists Gestion Nordik to “repair” the dams and manage water flow, he added, noting that “certain engineering evaluations” were necessary before a solution could be put in place. “We are ready to intervene and ensure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

The MRC Brome-Missisquoi is providing “technical support regarding the solution envisaged for the restoration of the marsh, as well as support for the city with ministry stakeholders,” spokesperson Mariève Lebrun said.

Ghizlane Behdaoui, a spokesperson for Quebec’s Ministry of Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP), told the BCN that the ministry carried out an inspection on March 28 and the results of the inspection are currently being analyzed. On April 2, MELCCFP personnel met with city officials and stakeholders to “present a description of the incident, the state of the situation and the regulatory framework,” she said. “Nothing is off the table to ensure compliance with applicable regulations.”

The MELCCFP “supports the city of Bromont in evaluating the proposed corrective measures with the aim of limiting impacts on the environment and wildlife,” Behdaoui said. “The ministry is currently analyzing a restoration proposal sent by the city.”

No one from the municipality was available to respond to detailed follow-up questions before press time.