The saga over what to do with 8 billion litres of Montreal’s sewage continues.
The stoppage on dumping 8 billion litres of sewage into the St. Lawrence River was ordered by Environment Canada and set to expire Monday night at midnight. The city has confirmed to CTV Montreal that the minister has ordered an extension of the order until next Monday, Nov. 9.
The stoppage was ordered in mid-October when outgoing Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq ordered an independent committee study the environmental impact of dumping such a large quantity of sewage into the St. Lawrence River.
The city planned to dump 8 billion litres of sewage in the river so that work could proceed on the Bonaventure Expressway and on the aging pipe network surrounding it.
The committee submitted its report to the environment ministry on Friday, but the city has yet to see it. They say they want to see it immediately.
On Monday, Executive Committee President Pierre Desrochers expressed his frustration, saying the work needs to be done - and there's little time to do it before winter comes.
“We have told her we are not in agreement with that decision to extend it for another week. We, as you already know, were not in agreement with the first time she (Aglukkaq) stopped. Now what we're asking her is to give us the go ahead, we want it as soon as possible,” he said. “We are participating with the independent expert committee. We provided them with all the information. We understand the report has been filed - we want to see the report.”
The city will now be required to wait for the new environment minister to be announced Wednesday to deal with the issue.
