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Mayor Larry O’Brien says the senior levels of government can’t avoid their responsibility in helping find a solution to our sewage spill problems.
Appearing on CFRA’s Madely in the morning, O’Brien says sewage overflows into the Ottawa River aren’t a new problem; in fact, our system was designed to dump extra water into the river during big rain storms.
But he says the responsibility for solving the issue extends to the federal and provincial governments as well, since they approved Ottawa’s sewage plans over the decades.
O’Brien notes about two thirds of the overflow problem will be solved once the three new automatic storm sewer regulators are in place.
But he adds the longer term solution, which could cost $2 billion, will need a long-term financial committment from the province and the federal government.