The Canadian city of Montreal began a controversial dump of untreated sewage into the St. Lawrence River early on Wednesday, angering environmentalists with a fix operation that could release as much as 8 billion liters (2.1 billion gallons) of wastewater into a major waterway.
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He attributed the colour to phosphorus, normal even without a sewage dump. He acknowledged that while the dump was an “unpopular decision”, the city must “shoulder” its responsibilities.
But the idea that the water of the St. Lawrence was pristine until Montreal’s toilets started dumping directly into the river couldn’t be further from the truth.
Mayor Denis Coderre said the move was necessary so that workers could relocate a snow chute – a large opening to bring water from melting snow to a wastewater treatment plan.
Fontaine said the most important way to measure the effect on the river is to take quality samples before, during and after the work is complete.
“It’s not pretty”, Fontaine said of a status report they provided.
As of midnight Montreal shut down a massive sewage and snowmelt collector near the Bonaventure Expressway in order to make necessary repairs. “And if there had been better options, we would have adopted them”.
Citizens are being asked not to flush certain items during the dumping period such as condoms, medications and tampons.
The river lies entirely within Canada and flows downstream of Montreal.
“Instead of putting $166 million on the Olympic stadium, instead of putting $11 million on baseball fields that no one cares about, instead of a new Aquapark, instead of decorating the Champlain bridge with lights for the 350th anniversary, that money could have been used to create biomethane plants that would solve this long-term”.
A second small protest also took place in Montreal’s Old Port neighbourhood.
According to water quality expert Sarah Dorner, while the problem of dumping sewage into bodies of waters is “widespread”, the situation has been improving.
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Lee Willbanks, director of Thousand Islands-based environmental group, Save the River, called the decision “outrageous” and said he’s gravely disappointed in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new government.
