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OTTAWA — Ottawa sewers overflowed into the Ottawa River again Friday, causing the second-largest spill of untreated water and sewage of the past year.
The spill totalled 67,489 cubic metres of waste liquid, as estimated by a city formula, and was caused by the heavy rains Thursday and Friday.
Ottawa still has some combined sewers in older neighbourhoods, which mix sewage from homes and businesses with runoff from the streets.
The entire mix is intended to go to the sewage treatment plant. But when the flow becomes too heavy from rain or melting snow, these older systems were designed to overflow in order to prevent flooding and basement backups.
So far there have been three overflows in 2011. There have been at least 64 since last April.
Orléans Councillor Bob Monette said the city has experienced a “vast improvement” recently with upgrades to the system of regulators, which catch some of the overflows in sewers. These are now trapping 65 per cent of the overflow water, he said.
The city has a $250-million plan to build reservoirs to catch even more.