Residents near Scatarie Island, N.S., are still haunted by a shipwreck that happened nearly four years ago.

But it's not ghosts who menace their shoreline. It's the decrepit, rusting skeleton of the MV Miner bulk carrier.

The people of Main-a-Dieu, a few kilometres away from the uninhabited Scatarie Island, are eager for the provincial government to wrap up a long-overdue salvage operation on the MV Miner, which ran aground off-shore in September 2011.

The salvage operation is in its final stages, but time and money are becoming concerns as work continues past the targeted Apr. 30 end date.

The MV Miner ran aground off Scatarie Island in 2011 after rough weather snapped a towline between the 222-metre-long carrier and the tugboat pulling it out to sea. The 45-year-old decommissioned ship was being hauled out to Turkey to be scrapped, and while the ship did not have any passengers, it did hold a great deal of fuel, waste oil and other refuse materials onboard.

The ship's rusting hulk has been sitting in the shoals off Scatarie Island ever since, angering nearby Main-a-Dieu residents who want it removed.

Scatarie Island is a designated wilderness area in Nova Scotia. It has no residents, but it sits close to the tiny Cape Breton community of Main-a-Dieu, where many residents work in the lobster trade.

Salvage operations stalled in 2012 and re-started in 2014, but crews repeatedly missed their target end dates. Now, crews are trying to wrap up their work before lobster season begins on May 15.

Amanda MacDougall, of Main-a-Dieu's Community Development Association, says she's excited the cleanup process is nearing the end, even though it's gone over schedule.

"It's been a long, hard road," MacDougall told CTV Atlantic on Saturday. "I can't imagine a day not fighting for that ship to be removed from the island."

Nova Scotia Transportation Minister Geoff MacLellan says the cleanup fell behind schedule because workers discovered additional asbestos and fuel in the wreck.

"The additional asbestos and diesel caused a significant challenge with logistics, with timeline, with equipment, with expense," MacLellan told CTV Atlantic.

"The job isn't 100 per cent completed, but we're at the point now where we're making the final cuts and pulling in those last remaining engines, which is a real good sign," he said.

MacLellan says he will push the federal government for funding to help pay for the $12-million salvage operations. Federal Transportation Minister Lisa Raitt has thus far refused to offer any financial assistance.

But MacDougall says the federal government should shoulder most of the blame for the wreck. "Quite frankly, it's the fault of the federal government that this happened," she said.

MacDougall says the federal government should have done "due diligence" before attempting to tow the decommissioned vessel out to sea.

With files from CTV Atlantic