Province says it won\'t pitch in to fix Ottawa\'s overflowing sewers

Tag : Sanitary Pipes

"They are part of the problem, so they must be part of thesolution," he said, adding he was disappointed with the province.
"The Ministry of the Environment has regulations with respect tosewage overflows, they know of our circumstances and have beentolerating this for some time, but it can't go on," Mr. Cullensaid.
A swath of the city's core has combined sanitary and storm sewers.Under normal circumstances, the sewers carry their contents to thecity sewage-treatment facility. But during heavy rains, the systemis overwhelmed and the city pumps storm water and raw sewage intothe Ottawa River through five pipes.
An overflow pipe near 24 Sussex Drive got stuck open during a largerainstorm on July 31, 2006, and it continued to dump raw sewageinto the river until the problem was detected on Aug. 15. Watertesting in the river at Petrie Island's beach showed levels ofdangerous E.coli bacteria shot up during this period.
The provincial, federal and municipal governments are investigatingthe spill.
According to the city's public works department, the cost toseparate the storm-water system from the sanitary water and sewersystem would be $1 billion. However, a recent estimate on the costof building a holding tank that could handle storm overflow is $100million.
At the beginning of June, federal environment minister and OttawaWest-Nepean MP John Baird said he was committed to securing $20million to help fix Ottawa's sewers.
On Wednesday, city councillors voted unanimously to set aside $20million in next year's budget to prevent sewer overflows into thecity's water bodies as a match to Mr. Baird's offer.
"This is not sustainable. We're living proof because of the issuessurrounding Petrie Island," Mr. Cullen said. He added: "We simplycannot turn a blind eye to these kinds of issues."
He said he expects Mr. Smitherman and provincial EnvironmentMinister John Gerretsen to be "on the hot seat" about the city'ssewer problem when they come to Ottawa for the Association ofMunicipalities of Ontario conference in August.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008