Bedford Basin to be dyed pink to fight climate change

Dyeing the Bedford Basin pink won’t save the world.

But it is the first step in testing a long-shot idea that could, maybe, help alleviate the impacts of climate change someday.

“It’s desperate times here, so we need to look at all the possible solutions that could potentially be done safely without causing more problems,” said Katja Fennel, a Dalhousie University oceanographer.

Fennel is leading a study that will test the idea of adding a base to seawater to lower its acidity. The hoped-for outcome is that it will increase the ability of seawater to absorb atmospheric carbon while lessening the impact of climate change on creatures that build themselves calcium-based shells (like oysters, lobster and coral).

On Wednesday, (weather permitting) Fennel’s team will add 500 litres of pink dye to the outfall of Nova Scotia Power’s Tufts Cove Generating Station to test dispersal in the Bedford Basin.

“This is a dress rehearsal,” said Fennel.

Over the few hours that the dye is visible, her team will monitor its movement and spread with drones, boats and underwater remote-controlled vehicles covered in sensors.

In September, the test will be repeated, but this time they will also add magnesium hydroxide to lower the acidity of the water.

Through the fall, the test will be repeated multiple times, increasing the amount of base added with the aforementioned technologies monitoring its dispersal and impact on living creatures.

The process is similar to the lime dosing already done on some eastern shore rivers in this province to offset the impact of a century of acid rain.

“Putting alkalinity in the ocean is something that naturally occurs,” said Fennel.

“Weathering on land does basically the same thing – that’s why the ocean is salty. It’s a naturally occurring process.”

Working with Halifax-based Planetary Technologies, Fennel’s team is looking to understand the impacts of speeding up that process.

“We’d like to work with the community to figure how we can actually deploy this that has positive impact on the local ecosystem and on the global climate,” said Mike Kelland, chief executive officer of Planetary Technologies.

“In process of it, we’ll talk about this testing process and building up this knowledge base so people can make an informed decision.”

Planetary is simultaneously researching ways to purify minerals if, in the future, the process is used on a larger scale.

“All the elements are in Halifax to test if this can be a really viable, scalable climate technology that can go out around the world,” said Kelland.

“We have high hopes that it can.”