MONTREAL -- Longueuil started dumping sewage into the St. Lawrence River Thursday as workers began repair work an underwater sewage pipe.
The South Shore city said it plans to dump about 162 million litres over an eight-day span from about 4,700 Longueuil and Boucherville homes.
The sewage will consist of untreated waste water from showers, toilets, sinks and industrial drains.
The amount of waste represents 7 per cent of all the sewage generated by the agglomeration.
The dump is required so the city can repair a broken pipe that lies that at the bottom of the river between a South Shore pumping station and a water treatment plant on Ile Charron.
Longueuil officials said crews will be working 24/7 during this discharge, and two teams will work simultaneously on the repair at times, including two divers.
Longueuil says there is no danger or risk to the public during the dump, but the city is taking precautions nonetheless.
“One of the reasons we chose to do this in November is that we know activity on the river at this time of year is minimal, but we have put up signs along the shore in Boucherville to indicate to the general public that it’s not a good idea to touch water,” said Longueuil spokesperson Louis-Pascal Cyr.
Sewage dumps are not uncommon in Canada. Montreal dumped 5 billion litres of raw sewage in 2015. The environmental effect was determined to be minimal.
In 2017 alone, Canadian municipalities spilled, leaked, or dumped 215 billion litres of sewage into waterways; in 2013, towns in Quebec dumped raw sewage into the St. Lawrence Rover on 45,000 separate occasions.
