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The federal government is willing to contribute a third of the cost of upgrading Ottawa’s sewage system so it no longer dumps raw sewage into the Ottawa River during storms, said Environment Minister John Baird.
“I’m prepared to work hard to come to the table with tens of millions of dollars if the provincial and local government can join us,” Baird said Monday. “I’m told this could be as much as $60 million.”
The announcement came after the revelation in May that a 2006 sewage system malfunction dumped 1.2 billion litres of raw sewage into the river after a storm. That was likely responsible for bacterial contamination at an east end beach. Due to the malfunction, a gate that lets raw sewage overflow into the river during storms got stuck open for two weeks. Four separate investigations into the incident involving all three levels of government are currently underway.
The city is legally allowed to let raw sewage overflow into the river during or after heavy rainfall, and it intentionally releases about four million litres of raw sewage into the river each year under such provisions.
Ontario Environment Minister John Gerretsen has said that in the long term, sewage spills such as the 2006 spill should be prevented by separating sanitary and storm sewers to prevent overflows during storms.
CBC News