Montreal's raw sewage to be dumped into St. Lawrence River as planned

The City of Montreal is going ahead with its controversialplan to dump eightbillion litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River.

PierreDesrochers, the chairmanof the city'sexecutive committee, said at a news conference Friday morning that emptying a major sewer interceptor into the riveris the only viable option that will allow necessaryconstruction work to be completed.

This is the only option.- PierreDesrochers,executive committee chairman

"After re-examining the situation, our administration has concludedthat it's inevitable that we have to close the interceptor, even if itmeans diverting the wastewater to the river," saidDesrochers, adding that thequality of drinking water will not be affected.

"We studied all other alternatives, and this is the only option."

The city estimates it would cost $1 billion to build atemporary diversion or storage area for wastewater.

Mayor Denis Coderrehadtemporarilyput the brakes on the plan after a public backlash earlier this week, saying it needed a second look.

• Montreal to dump 8 billion litres of sewage in the St.Lawrence River
• St. Lawrence raw sewage dump on hold after public outcry
• Millions of litres of sewagespilled into Montreal rivers

ProjectMontral head LucFerrandezsaid that the city's administration is "indifferent" to the environment.

"Where's the mayor? If this was about baseball then he would be here," saidFerrandez.

Provisions to be taken by the city:

• Any activity that involves direct contact with water will be prohibited from Oct.18-28 in Montreal's Southwest borough.
• The same restriction applies to the King Edward Quay sector from Oct.18-Nov.15.
• The city will ask businesses and residents along the St. Lawrence River from LaSalle to Rivire-des-Prairies to limit waste that goes in water during this period.

Snow dump to be moved

The construction work is tied to the demolition of the Bonaventure Expressway.

The city is moving a snow dump now located beneath the expressway.

Runoff from thatsnow dump emptiesinto the interceptor, as does the industrial and residential effluent frommany other sewer lines.

The sewage will be allowed to flow into the river beginning Oct. 18, and that will continue for about a week.

The province's Environment Ministry hasapproved the decision.

Up until the 1980s, it was common practice to clear Montreal's sewers this way, but it is no longer considered to be accepted practice.It's been six years since the city last dumped raw sewage into the river.

Montreal will not be the first Canadian city to deliberately or inadvertently release untreated sewage into oceans, lakes and rivers. Victoria discharges millions of litres of rawsewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca every day.

Since 2004, Winnipeg's outdated sewer system hasledto 185 million litres of raw sewage being dumped into the city's waterways. In 2014, untreated sewage flowed freely into Halifax Harbour, years after Halifax's sewage treatment was finished.

City spokesman PhilippeSabourinsaid earlier this week that contamination is not a big concern because of the sheer size of the river and how quickly it flows. Water in the river flows at arate of 6,000 to7,000 cubic metres a second compared tothe flow rate of the wastewater,expected to be just 13 cubic metres a second.

However, independent wastewater experts, biologists and other scientists have said the pollution will have an impact on aquatic life and on living organisms along the river's banks,and it could have a negative effect on communities downstream from the Island of Montreal.