Conduct enhanced monitoring of water quality, sediments and plants before, during and after the discharge.
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If the City of Montreal can meet strict conditions imposed by Canada’s environment and climate change minister, they’ll be able to move forward with a proposed plan to release eight billion litres of untreated wastewater into the St. Lawrence River.
Should a sewer break during the winter, spring or summer months and leak untreated water into the river the toxicity could seriously affect fish reproduction cycles, an expert panel of scientists warned.
On Monday, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said she would permit the dump as long as certain conditions were met by the city.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre’s announcement in early October that the city “had no choice” but to release the sewage sparked public consternation and national attention, particularly due to the fact it came during a federal election campaign.
Asked what Montrealers can expect to see and smell, Richard Fontaine, the head of city’s waste water management, said there should be no noticeable impact given the colder water temperatures.
“You should have no odour and it’ll be very hard to see something”, Fontaine said. “We will work with community leaders throughout the North Country to remain vigilant and protect the shared treasure that is the St. Lawrence River”.
A spokesman for the city of Montreal said in a statement Friday “the document reveals the urgency of the need for repairs to the sewage system”.
Participate in a comprehensive review of the events leading to the City’s decision to dump the raw sewage.
“The operation is aimed precisely at limiting the unplanned breakdown of strategic equipment, to increase our future capacity to treat wastewater and to reduce wastewater from overflowing into the St. Lawrence River”, Coderre told reporters at a news conference in Montreal.
Caroline Blais, a director at the federal agency, said the expert panel hired by the federal government concluded the risks associated with waiting are worse than the city’s plan to dump the sewage immediately into the river.
“While I recognize that this release of untreated wastewater is far from ideal, the City of Montreal must perform timely critical maintenance of their infrastructure to prevent an unplanned release that could be even more damaging to the environment and its aquatic species”, said McKenna.
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“I have no problem with the conditions, and I have no problem with a postmortem”, he said. “The objective is maximum seven and if we can do better, we will”.
