About 40 people in kayaks and on paddleboards took to the Lachine Canal Sunday to protest Montreal’s plan to dump sewage into the St. Lawrence River.
"I want people to cherish the St. Lawrence. We take it for granted. but it's right there. It's a magnificent thing that we have in our backyard in Montreal. I want people to respect it and I want the authorities to respect it and the politicians to respect it also," said paddler Antoine Bonicalzi.
The city originally announced the plan to dump eight billion litres of untreated sewage into the river Sept. 30. Public outcry prompted it to suspend the plan, but after a few days the city announced it would go forward. The move is necessary, the city says, in order to carry out work related to the lowering of the Bonaventure Expressway.
A snow dump needs to be moved, and to do that, a waste water collector needs to be shut down for a week, which means dumping the sewage into the river.
Green Party candidate Daniel Green says the discharge could be cut in half if the snow is stored somewhere else this winter.
“By doing that we reduce the discharge. The discharge that can be done will be done in February when the water is cold enough and will kill the coliform bacteria that might make people sick,” he said.
While the provincial government signed off on the proposal, the city is now liaising with the federal government. Parts of the federal Fisheries Act prohibits dumps like the one the city wants to undertake.
Last week, Mayor Denis Coderre accused the federal government of "playing cheap politics" for asking the city not to go ahead with the dump. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press show the feds have known about the plan since 2014.
The city has confirmed it has given Environment Canada documents concerning the plan. While the city says it has been told Environment Canada will follow up by Wednesday at the latest, Environment Canada says it hasn't committed to any deadline.
"Our primary concern is the protection of the St. Lawrence and Environment Canada scientists will take the necessary time to thoroughly review and analyze the information they have received from the city," said Environment Canada spokesperson Ted Laking in an email.
A city spokesperson reiterated Sunday that Environment Canada is trying to turn the sewage dump plans into an election issue.
These kinds dumps are not infrequent. Earlier this year, Longueuil emptied 150 million litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence. In 2013, across Quebec there were 45,000 other sewage spills into lakes and rivers throughout the province. Montreal dumped raw sewage into the St. Lawrence up until 1980.
Montrealer Xavier Nonnenmacher started a petition against the plan that has collected almost 89,000 signatures.
"The river is the biggest symbol of the city and the Quebec region, and that is why I am most concerned," he said.
According to Environment Canada’s website, wastewater is Canada’s biggest source of water pollution. More than 150 billion litres of untreated and undertreated wastewater is dumped into the country’s waterways every year.
