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That news came during a May 7 tour of the facility organized by Orléans Coun. Bob Monette. Along with reporters, other guests for the visit included the chair and vice-chair of the Friends of Petrie Island.
“It sure bothered people at the time,” said Friends vice-chair Bob Graham, who added the group was the target of public complaints arising from the truncated 2006 swimming season, explaining the misdirected complaints were akin to “blaming the victim.”
Last summer, by contrast, the beach was closed just six days.
David McCartney, the city’s manager of waste water and drainage services — and the man in charge of the Pickard facility — told the tour group staff at the plant only recently discovered a valve stuck open for about 14 days allowed combined sewage to drain into the Ottawa River around the same time in 2006, a problem not initially detected by the facility’s sensors.
McCartney said there is a “high probability” that this was the main or only cause of the closures.
“We’ve increased our vigilance at that particular site,” he said, adding that the equipment in question is 50 or more years old and will be upgraded over the next year.
Still, the tour also served to highlight several areas where the Pickard facility is a positive for the environment, and Graham said he hopes the message of how far water treatment has come in the city will get out to the wider public.
McCartney began his presentation with Ottawa’s humble and decidedly ecologically unfriendly beginnings; back when residents simply threw waste out their windows and disease was correspondingly common.
He then fast forwarded to the early 1900s, when the city’s first pipe systems were created. While these were a slight improvement, McCartney said, waste was being directed straight to the Ottawa River.
”(The pipes) solved the public health problem but, of course, did nothing for the environment,” he said.
The environmental impacts were only recognized in the 1950s, McCartney continued, leading to the construction of the Pickard Centre (originally known as the Green’s Creek Pollution Centre).
From 1988-1993, the facility was updated and expanded to its current state, in which it processes as much as 900 tons of waste water each year. It has the capacity, McCartney said, to handle more than 1,300 tons.
While the centre does produce solid waste that must be sent to landfill, more of it is recycled as fertilizer for agricultural uses. McCartney said about 1,500 tons of solids are sent to landfill in an average year but last year more than 4,000 tons were re-used.
Following the tour, Monette indicated he’d like to see all members of council as well as the public tour the site, though there are no budget funds available for tour guides.
The councillor added he’s glad a likely cause of the 2006 closures has been identified and hopes residents will understand efforts are being made to ensure nothing similar occurs again.
“Maybe now that we know what the problem is some of the fears will be allayed,” Monette said.
—By Steve Fouchard