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OTTAWA – At a closed-door session of city council late Thursday night, elected leaders directed their lawyers to try to work out a plea bargain on illegal sewage-dumping charges the municipality faces, and then, at an unannounced briefing, they learned the municipality has a history of major unreported sewage spills.
City lawyers were instructed to approach Crown prosecutors to see if they are interested in making a deal that would see the city plead guilty to charges stemming from a dump of almost a billion litres of raw sewage into the Ottawa River in 2006, in return for a reduced fine.
The council vote to seek the plea bargain passed by a large margin, but it was not unanimous.
Following the vote, city staff gave the unannounced briefing, including the news that on nine occasions since 1998 the city spilled large amounts of sewage into the river, including four major spills from the now notorious Keefer gate where the 2006 spill occurred.
The news came after a review of records dating back to 1998.
In an interview Friday morning, Dixon Weir, head of water and waste water at the city, said the records indicate the spills are “likely,” and there are no records to indicate whether or not they were reported to the ministry as required by law.
In fact, he said the ministry has been asked to review its records to see if the city or pre-amlgamation governments reported them.
In 1998, the Keefer gate was jammed open twice for four and six days, spilling or “potentially” spilling 100 million litres of sewage into the river. In 2000, a one-day jam resulted in 50 million litres being dumped, and a four-day spill or potential spill could have seen about 190 million litres of untreated waste and storm water dumped in 2004.
The other unreported spills were at outlets in the Ottawa River in the downtown area. One event, 20 million litres, was for eight days in 1998 at an outlet near the Rideau Canal. Four events were at an outlet near Booth Street:
1998, 16 days, 60 million litres;
1998, 25 days, 110 million litres;
1999, four days, 20 million litres; and
2000 129 days, 80 million litres.