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The city has gone as far as it can with its plan to stop sewage overflows until the federal and provincial governments kick more money in, according to a report.
Newer parts of Ottawa were built with two parallel sewage systems: one for rain and snow run-off from the streets and one for “sanitary sewage.”
Downtown was built with just one set of pipes, though, which carry both storm water and household waste to the treatment plant in Gloucester.
In heavy rains, the pipes get overwhelmed and are designed to vent overflow into the Ottawa River.
After a 2006 storm, a regulator gate jammed open and allowed a billion litres of raw sewage to keep flowing into the river in one long spill, and cleaning up the system became a city priority.
According to the report, to be presented to the environment committee next week, upgrades to the regulators have reduced the overflows by half relative to what they were in 2006 – but even so, this year the city estimates about 400 million litres of mixed rain and sewage have overflowed.
The construction of three big storage tanks under downtown, south Centretown and New Edinburgh, aimed at holding combined sewage back until the pipes and treatment plant can handle it, is in the planning stages. But according the report, that project will stay on the drawing board until the city can share the estimated $150-million cost with the federal and provincial government.
The budget for the whole effort is $251.6 million and the report notes that the other two governments have contributed $66 million so far.
The city is also struggling to get land for the tunnels, the report says, “as most of the land is federally owned.”
The first tank (really a long, wide tunnel) would extend all the way from LeBreton Flats to New Edinburgh and the third would run from New Edinburgh to the sewage plant, so building them will require access to a lot of land, even if it’s only under the surface.
The report says the land problem has put the tunnel planning eight months behind schedule, but city managers are meeting with the National Capital Commission to try to reach agreements.
The sewage outflow points are downstream of Westboro and Britannia beaches and the intake pipes for the city’s drinking water system, but surface run-off is a problem farther west – Pinecrest Creek, in particular, carries a lot of debris from parks and roads into the river when there’s heavy rain – and the city’s longer-term plans include a “retrofit” so that less water will run into it.
The city’s planning similar work farther east, where run-off into creeks like Bilberry and Voyageur is believed to contribute to frequently poor water quality at Petrie Island beaches.
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