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The city is one step closer to dealing with its sewer overflow problems. The planning and environmental committee voted in favour Tuesday of a five-year plan to fund a massive underground storage system that’s meant to virtually eliminate discharges of raw sewage into the Ottawa River. The total cost of the plan is $251 million. Most of the money for the plan has already been allocated in, or before, the 2010 budget. However, city staff are looking for an additional $78 million from city council, which will debate the plan in the near future. From April to November 2008, approximately 895-million litres of combined precipitation and sewage washed into the Ottawa River. The outdated system of pipes allows storm water to mix with untreated sewage, but the city’s treatment plant cannot handle the overflow during a heavy rainfall. The proposed plan would see huge storage tanks built underground that could hold excess stormwater and sewage during heavy storms, to be released when the treatment plant could handle it.
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