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Transport and Infrastructure Minister John Baird signalled Friday that he is keen to keep putting federal money into city projects aimed at reducing pollution of the Ottawa River.
Baird announced a specific $9.3-million transfer to the city to cover half the cost of a project that begins this month to upgrade sewer regulators, monitor the system and separate storm from sanitary sewers in older parts the city where one pipe serves both functions. But he said he wants the city to identify the next projects and a whole new phase of the cleanup.
The federal government became involved after it was disclosed that there had been a huge spill of sewage into the Ottawa River due to failures of old mechanical systems and weak monitoring and reporting systems. The city had to pay a $562,500 fine for failing to report a 2006 one-billion-litre spill of sewage to the provincial government.
That happened because a jammed gate allowed raw sewage to flow where it shouldn’t have. But even when the system is working as it’s supposed to, the shared pipes in the oldest parts of the city often overflow during heavy rains and send mingled household sewage and stormwater untreated into the river.
Dixon Weir, general manager of environmental services at the city, said the contract work being half-funded by the federal government will start this month and involve upgrading the sewer regulator at LeBreton Flats.
The $9.3 million is part of the federal government’s $33-million commitment made to the Ottawa River Fund, established to finance a series of such projects.
But Peter Hume, chairman of city council’s planning and environment committee, said the municipality is finalizing plans for additional projects that will require more help from the federal government. Hume said that Baird, the MP for Ottawa West-Nepean, has been pressing the city to move ahead with the pollution-reduction projects and the city is happy to have help in paying for them.
Baird said he is enthusiastic because he and many voters were shocked that sewage would be dumped into the river untreated in the 21st century.
“This is a huge public priority,” said Baird. “It offends people. It offends their morals.”