Homeowners in Purcell’s Cove desperate for breakwater

A homeowner in Purcell’s Cove says that he and his neighbours desperately need a breakwater to protect their coastal properties, but he cannot get a permit to build one.

Al Butt and his wife Angela live on Keefe Drive, in Purcell’s Cove. “I’m surrounded on three sides by water,” Butt says, describing the land as “almost an island.” The property is reached by a single lane road.

Butt says that his property and a neighbour’s property is seriously endangered by storms. With every storm, water comes up over his property, drowning his septic system and eroding his seawall and land.

Other neighbours on the penninsula support him but their houses are not as affected, Butt says, because their homes sit on higher ground. He says that he has already secured three permits to do work on his land, but they are only good above the high water mark, and the breakwater would have to be built further out in the water.

He’s frustrated that the key permit, which would allow him to build a breakwater to take the impact of the waves off his property, has not been approved by the Department of Natural Resources or Fisheries and Oceans.

“I should have just done it,” says Butt, but adds that he will keep waiting. Meanwhile, he hopes that there will be no major storms. He’ll be very happy to receive the permit, “if we’re still here,” he says.

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