An emergency shellfish closure ordered for the Halfmoon Bay area is expected to be in effect until later this month.
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) ordered the closure April 4 after a break was discovered in the outfall from a community wastewater system in Halfmoon Bay.
The closure covers the waters and foreshore within a 3,000-metre radius of the outfall, but most of the area is already closed to bivalve shellfish harvesting, DFO fisheries officer Robert Kaatz said.
Smuggler Cove and Welcome Beach are the two locations most affected by the closure, Kaatz said, adding that neither site is a highly active harvesting area.
DFO ordered the closure as a precautionary measure and it will likely remain in effect for 21 days, Kaatz said.
"I think it's a standard protocol to err on the side of caution," he said.
Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) infrastructure services staff completed repairs to the damaged outfall on April 5. SCRD utility services manager Dave Crosby said only treated effluent was discharged from the pipe, which had been corroded by age.
"The outfall's been in there since the early '70s, we believe," Crosby said.
An observant resident had first spotted the cracked pipe and alerted the SCRD, he said.
The leak was a "very minor" one, said Bryan Shoji, SCRD general manager of infrastructure services. "We don't know how long it was cracked for, but very little was coming out," he said.
Kaatz said anyone planning to dig for shellfish on the Coast should call his office first.
"Red tide will come and go," he said. "We recommend you call before you dig."
The DFO office in Madeira Park can be reached at 604-883-3050.
