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A tall ship, the barque Europa in Halifax Harbour in 2004
Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.
Located in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Halifax Harbour is claimed to be the second largest ice free harbour in the world after Sydney Harbour, although this claim is contested by roughly a half dozen other harbours (including Cork Harbour in Ireland, and Poole Harbour in England), depending upon how harbour limits are delineated.
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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:
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.
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 kilometres (7 mi) 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 harbour is marked by an extensive network of buoys and lighthouses, starting with Sambro Island Lighthouse at the harbour approaches, the oldest operating lighthouse in North America.
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:
All HPA facilities are serviced by CN. 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:
Halifax Harbour is on the receiving end of significant 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:
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 2008.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
