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The spill gates of the causeway on the Petitcodiac River in New Brunswick, Canada, were permanently opened in April 2010. We examined the short-term effect this had on downstream intertidal mudflats of the upper Bay of Fundy. Specifically, a before-after-control-impact design was used to determine if the causeway opening affected the invertebrate community (crustaceans, polychaetes, and molluscs), abiotic sediment conditions (sediment water content, mean particle size, penetrability, and aRPD depth), or resource availability (sediment chlorophyll a concentration, and organic matter content) of 5 intertidal mudflats (2 impacted sites, 3 reference sites) up to 5 months post-opening. We detected no biologically or statistically 2 meaningful differences between impacted and reference sites for any of the measured variables. This suggests that opening the causeway did not have an impact on these intertidal mudflats, at least within half a year of the opening. We speculate that this is likely a result of the macrotidal nature of the Bay of Fundy, that overwhelmed any changes to hydrodynamics and sedimentation which occurred after the opening of the causeway.

Most of the 4000 composting sites in North America employ open windrow composting techniques in which rainfall often comes into contact with the compost. The resulting runoff can leach contaminants from the compost, making the runoff unsuitable for direct release into receiving waters. Stormwater from these facilities is usually collected in a detention pond and treated prior to release. There is little guidance for determining the appropriate size of these runoff detention ponds. One barrier to modelling the hydrology of composting sites is a lack of basic information regarding rainfall–runoff relationships for compost. This note describes the results of laboratory and field experiments designed to estimate the fraction of rainfall incident on a compost windrow that leaches from the windrow onto the composting pad and into the detention pond. The results indicate that approximately 68% of the rainfall incident on a saturated compost windrow will eventually run off. Key words: solid waste management, composting, runoff, detention pond.

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