The fight to stop the city of Montreal from dumping sewage into the St. Lawrence River for a week is going international.

New York Senator Patty Ritchie wants the International Joint Commission to protect the river and investigate Montreal's plans.

The International Joint Commission is responsible for monitoring and protecting the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River because of their role in shipping and providing fresh water to many communities on either side of the border.

"While I realize that the dumping will occur in Canadian waters, downstream from any U.S. communities, I am very concerned by the precedent Montreal is setting for other communities along the St. Lawrence and the lakes," wrote Ritchie.

The Green Party wants to take legal action to try and stop the sewage dumping, and is likely to ask for an injunction to stop the work.

"There are many, many cities on the South Shore and the environmental impact is going to be disastrous. People are afraid," said Jici Lauzon, a candidate for the federal party. 

"The amount of pollution that is going to be dumped into the St. Lawrence River is unacceptable and we feel that the population and the governors, the mayor, should really seriously look at another alternative."

Xavier Nonnenmacher, a Montreal resident, started a petition last Friday that has already collected more than 57,000 signatures. 

"The river is the biggest symbol of the city and the Quebec region, and that is why I am most concerned about that," said Nonnenmacher. 

"I know many people who go surfing, kite surfing, swimming, and everybody drinks water from the river."

He plans to present his petition at a council meeting next week.

A frustrated Denis Coderre held an impromptu press conference Monday to address the issue.

“We truly have been through (the entire) grid and that was the only option,” said the Montreal mayor, who added that releasing large amounts of waste water has been done before, in 2003 and 2007.


Environment Canada gave the green light to both dumps.

Over the weekend the federal agency Environment Canada said it could not authorize the dumping of 8 billion litres of untreated wastewater, but did not say if it could stop Montreal from proceeding.

Coderre said he will be shocked if they try to stop it.

“They can say no if they want, but I don't answer hypothetical questions, because I truly believe because we've done that in the past and our experts put everything in order. We will see what happens,” he said.

Quebec's Ministry of the Environment has approved the plan, although it acknowledged Montreal has not presented any alternative.

Minister David Heurtel said as undesirable as dumping may be, if the work is not done the effects could be catastrophic.

"You have to also consider that if we don't do this work, if the city doesn't do this work, then you have a risk to the treatment plant itself," said Environment Minister David Heurtel.

"If the treatment plant goes down then the effects are far greater than anything that could be caused by this situation." 

Work being done on the Bonaventure Expressway requires a snowmelt collector to be moved, and crews cannot do that without clearing the kilometres of sewer pipes that run to the collector.

The dumping is expected to begin on October 18 and last seven to ten days.