Montreal mayor says work on schedule for St. Lawrence sewage dump

The City of Montreal's controversial planto dump eight billion litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River,which started just after midnight, is going swimminglyaccording to Mayor Denis Coderre.

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"We're overseeing it, we are recording data and I want to reassure people that it's going well," Coderre told a scrum of journalists from the site, noting that the week-long effortis on schedule.

Some observers had noticed a discoloration in the waterbut Richard Fontaine, the head of city's waste water management, said colour is not a clear indicator of the water's quality.

"What'smost important is the tests that we did before and during and after, that's the best way to judge." The testresults will be made public as soon as they are known, he said.

Fontaine also noted that the places which smelled the worst, such as the St-Pierre facility, routinely emit an odour even in normal conditions.

Coderre vowed to visit the site tomorrow and said that video images would be made available for the public to see.

Started at the stroke of midnight

Thedump project will continue for the next seven days, despite a protest by about 40 people.

Coderre said the city met theconditions imposed by Environment Canadato proceed with its plan.

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The protesters took to the foot of theMercier Bridge on Montreal's South Shoreon Tuesday night, in hopes ofstopping the dumping of the sewage, but to no avail.

On Wednesday, students at Kahnawake Survival School joinedother Kahnawake Mohawks at abonfire close to the bridge, where a statement denouncingthe city's plan wil be read. The fire wasset Tuesdaynight,also in protest of the sewage dump.

Coderrestood by the city's decision to dump untreated wastewater into the riveron Wednesday morning.

"We don't have a choice but to do planned work," he said.

The project is part of construction work on theBonaventure Expressway.

The city says it needs to shut down an interceptor a major sewer that collects the effluentfrom a network of other sewer lines on its waytothe watertreatment plant for maintenance and to link it toa new snow dump site. The wastewater will be diverted into the riveras a result.

Over the next week,the sewage will be diverted to discharge points along the river.

There are 12 boroughs and seven citieswhich had some or allsewage diverted to the southeast interceptor.

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Sewage dump could finish ahead of schedule

At 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday,work crews will begin working on the interceptor to repair it. Theywill work in shifts, 24 hours a day, until work is completed.

The dumping could be over in less than a week if the work is finished ahead of time.

Richard Fontaine,director of Montreal's wastewater treatment plant, told Radio-Canadathat the project is going smoothly.

"I adamantly hope that it will be shorter but you have to let me go inside the interceptor before I can confirm that" Fontaine said.

On Tuesday Coderre said there would not be any odours. Fontainetold Radio-Canada that while he hopes thatis the case,it is possible there could be some odours emanating from the river.

"It's normal.We're changing the current of the river and we're mixing the sediments that are present in the collectors," said Fontaine.

Others take extra precautions

The municipality ofLongueuil, located on Montreal's South Shore, will take daily samples from the river for testing.

The town will also have its own patrol teamcomposed of biologists and emergency services monitoring the north and south ends of the river. Workers on the boat will document photos of the state of the St. Lawrence.

Radio-Canada confirmed thatBota Bota, a spa located in Montreal's Old Port along the river, will close its doors on Thursday and Friday as a preventive measure.