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If they aren’t there already, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his family may want to head to Harrington Lake for the holiday weekend to avoid an unpleasant sewage spill near 24 Sussex Drive.
Raw sewage began running into the Ottawa River at a regulator just east of Rideau Falls — a stone’s throw away from the prime minister’s residence — at about 12:45 a.m. on Friday morning, officials said at a news conference. City crews were able to stop the spill around 4 p.m.
An estimated 6,500 cubic metres flowed into the river by 2 p.m., after a steel plate got stuck in a shaft that brings waste down to a nearby sewage-treatment plant. The sewage then went into the bypass, directly into the river.
A large, undetermined quantity also flowed in between the hours of 2 and 4 p.m.
Ottawa’s medical officer of health Dr. Isra Levy said two beaches downriver from the spill will be closed for the weekend, but there is no problem with the city’s drinking water, which is drawn upstream of the spill site.
The city has been rocked in recent years by problems with its sewage system, with large spills into the Ottawa River due to old, malfunctioning equipment.
© Copyright Canwest News Service