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The City of Ottawa is hoping a $252 million plan will stop raw sewage from flowing into the Ottawa River.
A report for the Planning and Environment Committee next week outlines the Ottawa River Action Plan, with a recommendation for the city to build one or more huge storage tanks to catch sewage overflow during rain storms.
Mayor Larry O’Brien says the storage facilities will cost $140 million.
If approved, the storage facilities will capture sewage flows during storms, and the flows will be “pumped out” later when the storm has passed.
The city looked at three options to reduce or eliminate raw sewage overflows into the Ottawa River, ranging in cost from $40 million to $2.2 billion.
O’Brien says the city will find a way to pay for the Ottawa River Action Plan, adding it will be “through our water rate or whether we do it through our tax base or whether we borrow the money, we will be finding the money to go forward with the additional $140 million of work over the coming years to solve this problem.”
The report for the Planning and Environment Committee says 75 per cent of questionnaire respondents endorsed Option B, which is the $140 million storage tank plan.
The storage tanks would reduce sewage overflows by 99 per cent.