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Orléans Coun. Bob Monette says he was angered to hear news of the Saturday, July 19 spill, but lauds city staff’s fast response and notification of proper parties.
“I was furious … but I’m pleased they dealt with it in a quick fashion,” he adds. “Staff should be commended for their quick action.”
The overflow on June 14, however – not reported to councillors until Wednesday, July 23 – had the east-end politician questioning whether procedures put in place since the revelation of a major spill in 2006 are working.
“To me, that is just not acceptable,” Monette explains, citing concerns about the delay to residents receiving the message. “Councillors as a whole need to know if there’s an anomaly in the community.”
With the federal government and the city both willing to contribute money towards solving the combined sewer issue – and with Monette hopeful the province will offer funding as well – he says they are on the path towards correcting the problem.
“No one in their right mind should think it’s appropriate to be putting raw sewage in the Ottawa River,” Monette continues. “Until we get it fixed, it will be happening again. (Keeping informed) is the best we can ask for right now.”
Ottawa-Orléans MPP Phil McNeely, meanwhile, agrees that a long-term solution is needed, especially to ensure continual use of city recreation facilities.
“It’s going to continue to happen because it’s a poor system of sewage collection, based on having overflows,” he says. “The wet years are going to be bad for the beaches.”
McNeely did, however, credit the new process that ensures the provincial government is quickly notified of any issues, adding that “at least we won’t be wondering for years what happened.”
According to city information, in the early morning of July 19, an estimated 9,000 cubic metres of raw sewage spilled into the Ottawa River for two and a half hours after the Booth Street regulator jammed with debris from rainfall the previous night. After staff returned the regulator to normal operation, calls were put out to Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Ottawa Public Health, downstream water takers and council. A no-swim advisory was also issued at Petrie Island that day as a precaution.
Last month, during a regulator inspection on June 14, the Kent Street mechanism was “found to be damaged and inoperable,” says a memo from David McCartney, the city’s director of water and wastewater services. In a “worst-case scenario”, an estimated 10,000 cubic metres of sewage was released, though staff have been unable to pinpoint firm numbers, it continues. After discovering the broken regulator, it was quickly repaired and returned to regular operation, with most stakeholders informed of the incident – except city councillors.
“We failed to tell councillors about (the June 14 spill)… we screwed up,” explains McCartney, adding that after requesting a volume estimate on how much overflowed, various vacations and “one thing and another” led to the oversight.
Upgrades to the system are coming down the line, he continues, including real-time monitoring and a new alarm system expected by the end of next year.
To currently monitor sewage spills, staff must wait until a storm has subsided and personally inspect all five regulators, McCartney says, an extensive job requiring a four-person team and various equipment in a confined space, heading 30 to 40 feet underground to do a visual check.
The coming upgrades, which will allow staff to do the same via computer, will “improve the situation significantly,” he explains, but still doesn’t solve the overlying problem of how combined sewer systems work.
“It’s just the reality of it,” McCartney continues, adding staff were also directed by council last month to use the upcoming results of a water quality modelling study to determine what can be done in the long-term.
(C) Orleans Star