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Ontario’s premier made it clear Monday that he expects the City of Ottawa to spend some of its new provincial infrastructure money on stopping sewage overflows into the Ottawa River.
“We’ve got raw sewage going into our river. That’s not acceptable,” Dalton McGuinty said Monday in Ottawa after announcing that the city will receive $77.2 million in new funds for capital projects.
“My hope is that Mayor [Larry] O’Brien and the council will give some serious thought to using that to investing in water and sewage infrastructure.”
Ottawa’s combined sanitary and storm sewer system, which is designed to flow into the Ottawa River during heavy rains, came under scrutiny following a serious sewage spill in 2006 blamed for contaminating an east end beach with E. coli bacteria for weeks.
The city has since been charged under the Ontario Water Resources Act in relation to the spill.
The money was part of $1.1 billion in new infrastructure money promised by McGuinty at the annual meeting of the Ontario Association of Municipalities to municipalities across the province.
‘Other pressing infrastructure needs’
O’Brien said he was very pleased and “truly appreciative” about the money, which comes with no strings attached, other than the requirement that it be spent on capital projects.
He added that he “can’t imagine” not putting some of the money towards sewer upgrades, which are already being supported by $20 million in federal funding and $20 million in municipal funding.
“But we also have other pressing infrastructure needs,” he said, listing the widening of Hazeldean Road, the Hunt Club Road extension and the new Strandherd Bridge across the Rideau River.
He added that the sewage upgrade itself could cost $600 million and take years to complete.
“There’s whole parts of our city that need to be reconfigured.”
O’Brien suggested some of the infrastructure money would be used to invest in technology infrastructure in an effort to reduce the city’s overall operating expenses.
Merrickville funds fall short for sewage fix
Meanwhile, Merrickville Mayor Doug Struthers said the $160,000 promised to his community is not nearly enough to cover the urgently needed replacement of its failing sewage plant.
”$160,000 pales when looking at the estimate to replace our plant, which is some $8.4 million,” Struthers said.
But he added that he is viewing the funding as a “work in progress” and will be meeting with Ontario Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman for further discussions.
The urgent need for replacement of the plant was supported two years ago by the Environment Ministry, which wrote a letter flagging concerns about potential water contamination from two sewage storage tanks that may be leaking.
(C) CBC News