City of Ottawa worker fired over massive 2006 sewage spill

A City of Ottawa employee hasbeen dismissed over his alleged conduct in the wake of a massive sewage spill into the Ottawa River two years ago.

Deputy city manager Richard Hewitt e-mailed councillors to inform them of the dismissal Wednesday afternoon. The news camea day after Hewitt revealed the worker did not immediately alert the Ministry of the Environment about the July 2006 spill as he was supposed to do and as he claimed to have done.

The spill is believed to have caused bacterial contamination that closed an east-end beach to swimmers for 45 days that summer.

At city council Wednesday, three east-end councillorswere tobring forward a motion calling for Alain Lalond, thecity's auditor general, to investigate the spill.

Councillors Bob Monette, Rainer Bloess and Rob Jellett want Lalonde to look intohow information about the spill moved or did not move among city staffand why no link was made between the spill and bacterial contamination at Petrie Island beach.

"We have to make sure that we know exactly who knew what when, and what steps are in place to make sure this doesn't happen again," said Jellett.

Lalonde ready for investigation

Lalonde said he's ready to get started, hisannual budget will cover the cost of the investigation, andas part of the probe, he can interview not only current staff, but former employees as well.

"I'm totally prepared to do that, and I have all the powers to do it," he said.

Monette suggested that the employee fired Wednesday might not wind up being the incident's only casualty.

"If there is more people that lied about this process, well, you know, actions will be taken once we have all the facts."

Last week, Mayor Larry O'Brien called for an independent investigation of the spill, prompting criticism from councillors who saidthat it should first be turned over to the auditor general, who is responsible for ensuring accountability at the city.

City councillors only learned last week about the 2006 incident that spilled 1.2 billion litres of raw sewage into the river. It was blamed on a sewage system valve near Keefer Street that got stuck open after a storm.

Initially, the city said the spill had been reported immediately to the Ministry of the Environment.

OnTuesday,Hewitt issued a memo informing council that the spill had not been officially reported to the ministry until May 2007 and that an employee had provided erroneous information about the reporting of the spill and had been suspended without pay as a result.