Halifax Harbour

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Halifax Harbour, October 13, 2006. Facing mouth of Harbour, Georges Island on left, McNabs Island in centre, and ‘Sea Princess’ Cruises Ship moored on right.

A tall ship in Halifax Harbour

Entrance to Halifax Harbour as seen from Georges Island

Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Located in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Halifax Harbour is considered to be the second largest ice free harbour in the world, although this claim is also contested by roughly a half dozen other harbours, depending upon how harbour limits are delineated.

1 Harbour description
- 1.1 Islands
2 Navigation
3 Port facilities
4 Pollution
5 External links

[edit] Harbour description

The harbour is called chebucto by the Mi'kmaq Nation and runs in a northwest-southeast direction.

Based on average vessel speeds, the harbour is strategically located approximately one hour sailing time north of the Great Circle Route between the Eastern Seaboard and Europe. As such, it is the first inbound and last outbound port of call in eastern North America with trans-continental rail connections.

The harbour is largely formed by a drowned river valley which succumbed to sea level rise since glaciation. The Sackville River now empties into the upper end of the harbour in Bedford Basin, however its original river bed has been charted by the Canadian Hydrographic Service throughout the length of the harbour and beyond.

The harbour includes the following geographic areas:

Northwest Arm Another drowned river valley now largely used by pleasure boats.
The Narrows A constricted passage to Bedford Basin.
Bedford Basin A sheltered bay and the largest part of the harbour.

[edit] Islands

The harbour is home to several small islands.

The harbour limit is actually formed by the northern end of its largest island - McNabs Island. The largest island entirely within the harbour limits is Georges Island, a glacial drumlin similar to its dryland counterpart at Citadel Hill. Several small islands are located in the Bedford Basin near Bedford and Burnside. There is also a small island known as Deadman's Island (for the burial location of War of 1812 prisoners of war) in the Northwest Arm.

Although outside the defined harbour limits, Lawlor Island and Devils Island are also frequently included in descriptions of Halifax Harbour and the surrounding area.

[edit] Navigation

Halifax's official harbour limit for navigational purposes is delineated by a line running from Herring Cove on the west side of the main channel, to the northern end of McNabs Island, then from McNabs Island across the Eastern Passage to the actual community of Eastern Passage on the east side of the island.

Deep draught vessels must use the main channel into the harbour, which runs on the west side of McNabs Island. The west entrance point marking the beginning of the inner approach using this channel is located near Chebucto Head, approximately 12 km south of the limit.

Shallow draught vessels (less than 2.5 m, 8.5 ft) may use the Eastern Passage, which runs on the east side of McNabs Island; however, continuous silting makes charted depths unreliable.

Large vessels have compulsory pilotage, with harbour pilots boarding at the pilot station off Chebucto Head. Vessels wishing to transit The Narrows between the outer harbour and Bedford Basin must travel one at a time; this rule was established after the disastrous Halifax Explosion of December 6, 1917 when a collision between the French munitions ship Mont-Blanc and the Norwegian Imo destroyed part of Halifax and Dartmouth.

Canadian Forces Maritime Command, known as MARCOM, maintains a large base housing its Atlantic Fleet (MARLANT) along the western side of The Narrows, as well as an ammunition depot on the northeastern shore of Bedford Basin. There are strict security regulations relating to vessels navigating near MARCOM facilities and anchorages.

There are two large suspension bridges crossing The Narrows:

the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, opening in 1955
the A. Murray MacKay Bridge, opening in 1970

[edit] Port facilities

The Halifax Port Authority is a federally-appointed agency which administers and operates various port properties on the harbour. Previously run by the National Harbours Board, the HPA is now a locally-run organization.

HPA facilities include:

South End Container Terminal - Piers 36-42 (currently operated by Halterm Limited, with several gantry and post-Panamax cranes)
Halifax Grain Elevator
Ocean Terminals - Piers 23-34
Seawall - Piers 20-22, Cruise Ship Pavillion and Pier 21 museum
Richmond Terminals - Piers 9 and 9A
Richmond Offshore Terminals - Piers 9B-9D (multi-user supply base for offshore oil and gas exploration/production)
Fairview Cove Container Terminal - (currently operated by Cerescorp)
National Gypsum Wharf - (currently operated by National Gypsum to serve Wrights Cove gypsum terminal)
Woodside Atlantic Wharf - (vessel lay-up and repair, oil platform servicing)
Imperial Oil Wharves - (currently operated by Imperial Oil to serve Dartmouth refinery)
Ultramar Oil Wharves -( currently operated by Ultramar to serve the petroleum storage facility )
Autoport - (currently owned by CN Rail)

All HPA facilities are serviced by CN Rail. It provides on-dock daily train service to Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, and Detroit. The railway also operates the Halifax Intermodal Terminal (HIT) adjacent to the Richmond Terminals.

In addition to HPA facilities, the following users have port facilities:

Irving Shipbuilding operates the Halifax Shipyard, a medium-sized vessel construction and repair yard. The yard contains two floating drydocks (the largest is Panamax size) plus one graving dock and various shore-based operations.
Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT) operates the HMC Dockyard, Dockyard Annex and CFAD Bedford through CFB Halifax. There are also military docking facilities located at CFB Shearwater.
Canadian Coast Guard operates CCG Base Dartmouth, housing part of the Atlantic and Arctic fleets as well as pollution response and navigation aids maintenance facilities.
Bedford Institute of Oceanography maintains docking facilities for various government scientific vessels. Shannon Hill, above the BIO campus is also home to CCG's "Halifax Marine Communications and Traffic Services" which operates Halifax Coast Guard Radio and the Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) centre, providing continuous radar coverage of all harbour activity.

There are several marinas on the harbour:
- Armdale Yacht Club (Northwest Arm)
- Bedford Basin Yacht Club (Bedford Bay)
- Dartmouth Yacht Club (Wrights Cove)- [[Burnside, Nova Scotia}Burnside]]
- Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (Northwest Arm)
- Shearwater Yacht Club (Shearwater)
- St. Mary's Boat Club (Northwest Arm)
- Waegwoltic Club (Northwest Arm)

There are 2 Automated Weather stations within the harbour
- McNabs Island
- Weather buoy Station 44258

[edit] Pollution

Halifax Harbour is on the receiving end of signficant amounts of untreated raw sewage from the urban built-up areas surrounding it. Approximately 181,000,000 litres of untreated sewage are currently discharged every day, resulting in significant contamination and the following problems:

Shellfish harvesting is prohibited in the harbour;
large areas of contaminated sediment exist around some forty separate outfalls;
water quality is poor along the shorelines;
bacterial contamination is widespread;
and aesthetics are poor along the Halifax/Dartmouth waterfronts due to particulates, floatables and odour.[1]

The problem was identified several decades ago and customers of the Halifax Regional Water Commission were charged a pollution surcharge that was supposed to pay for creating a treatment system. It was only after the creation of the Halifax Regional Municipality through municipal amalgamation that the project was moved beyond the planning stage.

Currently labelled the "Harbour Solutions Project", a treatment system has been under construction since the early 2000s with 3 plants being built (1 in downtown Halifax, 1 in downtown Dartmouth, 1 in Herring Cove on the southwest side of the harbour) and extensive collector pipes to close all sewage outfalls into the harbour and redirect sewage into the treatment plants. Total project cost is estimated to be $400 million and should go online by the end of the decade.