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Municipal leaders from the United Counties of Prescott and Russell want Ottawa to stop sending its sewage to them down the Ottawa River.
A summer of heavy rains and mechanical problems at Ottawa’s sewage treatment plants has resulted in more than 800 million litres of raw sewage poured into the river.
So, the mayors of the eight municipalities in the downstream counties have written to Ottawa demanding that the spills stop.
“We’d like to see if they can get back to us on what’s gonna be done,” said Robert Kirby, mayor of East Hawksbury. “Is this going to be an on-going situation? When’s it going to be corrected?”
“It’s a heritage River, and it belongs to all of the citizens,” said Gary Barton, mayor of Champlain Township.
“Our beach in L’Orignal, in our park, was closed due to high coliform count for the first time in anyone’s memory, in a long, long time,” Barton said.
Ian Kirkpatrick lives a two-minute walk from the river in Vankleek Hill. He said he bought his house there just to be near the river.
“We’re always in the river at some point,” he said.
But this summer, he said, he kept his eyes on news from Ottawa.
He said he’s read more than he wants to know about heavy rain and raw sewage spills, which in the end float past his house.
“Having raw, untreated sewage where my grandkids and my kids are swimming — yeah, it raises a lot of concerns,” he said.
Ottawa has plans to reduce spills by 50 per cent.
Kirby says that’s a start, but Prescott and Russell resident wants more.
“It’s a zero tolerance [policy] for everybody else so I don’t see why it should be different for Ottawa,” Kirby said.