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The City of Ottawa’s fine is expected to be close to the minimum allowed for a sewage spill that flushed an estimated 1.2 billion litres of raw sewage into the Ottawa River in the summer of 2006.
“That’s what we heard — it’s going to be close to … $600,000,” Coun. Eli El-Chantiry confirmed on Friday morning.
The amount is far less than the $78 million maximum that could be levied against the municipality.
The city pleaded guilty in September to two charges under the Ontario Water Resources Act, and the Province of Ontario was expected to announce the exact penalty Friday afternoon.
City staff have been negotiating the fine with the province for a long time and had come up with what they considered “a fair amount,” Coun. Marianne Wilkinson said. City council had agreed to that amount, but it could change before the official sentencing, she said.
“The important thing really is what we’re going to do to make sure this does not happen again,” Wilkinson added.
The City of Ottawa, the provincial government and the federal government are to spend $100 million in the coming years to upgrade the city’s sewage system to prevent future spills and overflows.
Closure a relief: councillor
The closure provided by the sentence will be a relief for everyone, El-Chantiry said.
However, he noted that sewage is still overflowing into the Ottawa River from municipalities along its banks “all the way to Temiscaming almost.”
“Ottawa needs to clean up, and we should be doing something to reduce the overflow going to the river,” he said. “But that’s not going to cure the river. I can tell you that much.”
The offences the city admitted to committing relate to water contamination between Aug. 4 and Aug. 15, 2006:
* Causing or permitting the discharge of sewage into the river that could “impair the quality of the water.”
* Failing to notify the Ministry of the Environment of the spill when it was discovered on Aug. 15, 2006.
The spill has been blamed on a sewage gate that was jammed open after a storm and is believed to have been responsible for bacterial contamination at an east-end beach.
According to the Environment Ministry, fines for each of the offences are $25,000 to $6 million for each day or partial day. That puts the possible range for the fine at $300,000 to $72 million for the first offence and $25,000 to $6 million for the second offence, for a total of $325,000 to $78 million.
(C) CBC News