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Incompetent management is the reason a billion litres of raw sewage ended up in the Ottawa River in August 2006.
Alain Lalonde, the city’s auditor general, released a 107-page report this morning that determined not only was an incompetent management structure a cause of the dumping that went unnoticed for almost two weeks, but years of neglect of the city’s 50-year-old sewer regulators, which control the the flow of sewage and stormwater into the river, is also to blame.
He said a lack of reporting protocols resulted in the provincial Ministry of the Environment not being notified for close to a year. Top city officials didn’t find out until last May — almost two years after the spill.
“The August 2006 spill was brought about by inadequate preventative maintenance and a lack of proactive management of this equipment,” said Lalonde. “Once the event had occurred, a culture of either not understanding, or disregarding the significance of sewage spills took over and the event was never viewed as noteworthy.”
The audit says that a 1970 report published by the American Public Works Association (APWA) says that the sewer regulators, of which the city has five, require continuous preventative maintenance, at least once a week and after each storm, in order to make sure they are functioning properly.
Alain Lalonde, the city’s auditor general, released a 107-page report this morning that determined not only was an incompetent management structure a cause of the dumping that went unnoticed for almost two weeks, but years of neglect of the city’s 50-year-old sewer regulators, which control the the flow of sewage and stormwater into the river, is also to blame.
He said a lack of reporting protocols resulted in the provincial Ministry of the Environment not being notified for close to a year. Top city officials didn’t find out until last May — almost two years after the spill.
“The August 2006 spill was brought about by inadequate preventative maintenance and a lack of proactive management of this equipment,” said Lalonde. “Once the event had occurred, a culture of either not understanding, or disregarding the significance of sewage spills took over and the event was never viewed as noteworthy.”
The audit says that a 1970 report published by the American Public Works Association (APWA) says that the sewer regulators, of which the city has five, require continuous preventative maintenance, at least once a week and after each storm, in order to make sure they are functioning properly.
(C) Ottawa Sun