Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
For Ottawa riverkeeper Meredith Brown, the sewage problems that first became evident in 2009 are not water under the bridge. On Tuesday, World Water Day, she said the city still has a long way to go.
More than 115,000 cubic metres of sewage overflow has been dumped into the Ottawa River since Nov. 4, and that doesn’t include run-off from Monday’s snowfall.
The numbers were tabulated a week after Orléans Councillor Bob Monette said upgrades to the sewer system have resulted in trapping 65 per cent of overflow water from the city’s old downtown sewers, which vent mixed water and sewage when they’re overrun by rain and meltwater.
“There have been a few improvements, but if you look at the amount of untreated sewage going into the river it’s still in the millions upward to a billion litres annually,” she said. Ottawa Riverkeeper, which Brown heads, is a charity devoted to maintaining and improving the health of the Ottawa River.
The city introduced realtime control devices to its sewers last year, allowing for constant monitoring of pipe flows as well as the automated control of equipment. The technology is used to trap excess waste water within the sewer system rather than diverting it into the river. The real time strategy is the first of a proposed 17 projects developed under the Ottawa River Action Plan.
“What is really going to help if we want to drastically reduce those volumes is the underground storage that they are proposing to build,” said Brown. The storage facility, a huge holding tank, is the third project in the plan: a huge underground storage area to be constructed that would hold excess waste water from areas of the city using combined sewers. This older system was designed to overflow into the river when it rained.
Brown indicated the storage facility was still in the planning and design stage. No city official involved in the project was available to talk about it.
While the river is noticeably healthier compared with its heavily polluted days in the 1960s, there are new pollutants to be aware of, Brown warned
“There are lots of really nasty chemicals and compounds that we are putting in the river,” she said. “Things like tritium going into our river, we have no ability to filter out.”
Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen; Brown says small levels have been found in Ottawa’s drinking water.
Money has been allocated to fund future sewage projects in the 2011 municipal budget, but the river may still suffer despite the city’s best efforts.
“You have to remember the City of Ottawa is only one influence on the river. The City of Gatineau is dumping sewage not just from the combined sewer overflow but they often release . sewage right from the plant,” said Brown. She said people should also be aware of their impact on the river.
“Everybody needs to take responsibility and do their piece, what’s coming out of individual households can potentially end up in the river,” said Brown.
© Copyright © The Ottawa Citizen