North American cranberry growers’ co-op Ocean Spray has picked up environmental approval in New Brunswick for over 1,900 acres of new bog development.
The Massachusetts-based co-op, which includes growers from New Brunswick, B.C. and Quebec, has been granted approval to develop 1,914 acres of cranberry bog at Rogersville, about 90 km northwest of Moncton, under “certain conditions.”
The province’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) lays out “25 safeguards to prevent harm to the environment,” said Roland Hache, the province’s environment minister, in a release Tuesday.
Said safeguards, Hache said, “will protect water quality and quantity; fish habitat; rare plants; and archaeological resources. They will also ensure that appropriate environmental monitoring is put in place.”
The EIA process, he said, “identifies how a project may potentially harm the environment. It gives the proponent the opportunity ahead of time to come up with ways to prevent such problems from occurring.”
The project is to be completed in five phases over four years, the province said. The first will be the construction of about 150 acres of cranberry beds, scheduled to begin this month.
