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The city also faces a second charge of failing to notify the Ministry of Environment about the spill in a timely manner. Both charges can bring a fine of between $25-thousand and $6-million a day for each day the spill occured.
Within hours of the charges being disclosed, the city solicitor was already downplaying the potential financial impact, saying that similar charges against other municipalities resulted in fines of less than $200,000.
The situation in question occured on Aug. 5 when an overflow pipe near 24 Sussex Ave. got stuck in the open position and remained that way for 15 days as raw sewage continued to flow untreated into the Ottawa River. The spill caused a major spike in e-coli levels downstream especially at Petrie Island where regular testing was being down.
For months city officials in the water and waste water division denied any connection between the high e-coli levels and a possible waste water discharge into the river.
It wasn’t until May of this year that a manager at the Robert O.Pickard Water Treatment Plant inadvertently mentioned the spill during a tour of the facility by Orléans Ward Coun. Bob Monette.
Subsequent to the information being found out, the city issued a belated report to the Ministry of Environment about the spill that same month. In offering an explanation, senior city management said that a department head had lied about reporting the incident to the province shortly after it happened. That manager was subsequently fired after everything came to light.
Besides the Ontario Ministry of Environment, the federal Environment Ministry is also investigating the incident as is the city auditor.
(C) Orleans Online