Montreal’s planned sewage dump can go ahead – as long as the City of Montreal meets some conditions, Canada’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna has announced.

“An unplanned discharge would have very significant effects,” said McKenna, on the phone from Paris ahead of three days of talks to prepare for a global climate change summit beginning Nov. 30.

If the conditions are met, the eight billion litres of waste water could be dumped immediately, and should be completed before Dec. 5 to lessen the impact as much as possible, said McKenna.

"Now it is up to Montreal to meet these conditions, and we will be monitoring to be sure they do," she said.

The long list of conditions includes transparency, clean-up measures, improving the emergency management system, and monitoring the water quality before, during and after the dump. She also stressed the importance of working in collaboration with the local First Nations community in Kahnawake.

“We agree with those conditions. Those conditions are based on science. It’s the consequence of the report from independent experts,” said Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, reacting to the news.

He added that the city will provide a more technical briefing Tuesday that will outline the details of the dump – including when it will happen.

“The risks associated with an unplanned discharge are significant,” said McKenna. “Really, it’s balancing risk. It’s less than ideal. I’m not thrilled to be in this situation.”

"We need to go ahead with this planned action because there could be very negative consequences," said Coderre in his news conference from city hall, adding that, "We need to find a mitigation plan for the future. We need to prepare for this event."

On Friday, an independent panel commissioned by the Harper government delivered its analysis of Montreal's plan to allow approximately eight billion litres of untreated wastewater into the river while construction takes place on a snowmelt collector.

That report concluded there is little likelihood that the sewage would affect fish, so long as the work occurs before sections of the river freeze during winter. The analysis confirmed it is also better than having an unplanned, emergency dump take place.

Discussing his report, Daniel Cyr said fish currently living in the river would be affected, but that it would be worse if the dumping took place when fish were spawning,

"The risks to reproduction are minimal, but the immune system is definitely a risk. I mean the immune system has been shown with the treated effluent to be affected," said Cyr.


Repairs needed

The snowmelt collector near the Bonaventure Expressway needs to be repaired because sections of its supporting structure are falling off and flowing downstream, into the main sewage treatment plant for half of the residents on the island.

The collector also lies too close to where the lowered Bonaventure Expressway will run.

Work to fix the collector cannot take place while water is flowing through the large pipes, and so about 18 months ago the city devised the plan to divert wastewater directly into the St. Lawrence at two dozen locations.

Environment Quebec approved the plan, saying it acknowledged that Montreal had no other realistic option.

Critics suggest alternatives

Critics oppose the plan, including Montreal city councillor Craig Sauvé, who suggested steps could be taken to reduce the environmental impact.

"There are some several mitigating factors that we can use, some things that we could use to try to prevent the amount of solid waste going into the river, for example, by having some screening, by having some mobile units for treatment," he said.

"There are some options that we could do there that we don't have to just directly throw eight billion litres of wastewater into the river."

The city has said that alternatives, such as carrying water to the waste treatment centtre, would be prohibitively expensive, adding that the amount of wastewater being dumped equals about one per cent of the total volume of water that will flow through the river over the course of one week.