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The City of Ottawa has pled guilty to several charges stemming from a massive sewage spill in 2006 that resulted in over one billion litres of untreated storm and sewage water being dumped into the Ottawa River.
The spill, which was caused by a faulty regulator which left a slough gate jammed open for nearly six weeks, didn’t come to light until this past May when a manager at the Robert O. Pickard Water Treatment Centre inadvertently told a group touring the facility about the incident.
The startling revelation sparked several investigations that eventually led to the firing of three senior officials in the water and wastewater department. It also resulted in the city being charged with several offences under the Ontario Clean Water Act for failing to report the spill in a timely manner.
City lawyers and legal counsel from the Ministry of Environment will be back in Provincial Offences Court on Sept. 23 to present arguments on the size of the penalty the city will have to pay.
The minimum fines under the Act amount to about $300,000. Although the maximum is $75 million, it’s doubtful the province would ask for that, or the court would impose it.
(C) Orleans Online