Osprey Media - Welland Tribune - Print Version

Sewage 101 in the Falls; councillors didn't know storms forced raw sewage into the Niagara River

COREY LAROCQUE

Monday, January 29, 2007 - 09:00

Local News - Pumping raw sewage - including untreated human waste - into the Niagara River after heavy rainstorms has been going on for years. And city council members have known about it all along, according to staff reports politicians have approved.

"We owe the residents an apology. We should have known," said Coun. Carolynn Ioannoni, reacting to an Osprey News Network story about sewage discharged into the rivers.

Some politicians said last week they weren't aware of the practice until last Saturday's story. But official reports show they have been informed when it has happened and politicians have even approved a $10-million project aimed at alleviating much of the problem.

Mayor Ted Salci said he has known for years about the practice, though he doesn't like that it has to be done. Most other communities have to do the same thing when their sewage treatment plants are ovewhelmed. Halifax and Vancouver discharge raw sewage into the oceans. Beaches on Lake Ontario, including those in St. Catharines, are sometimes closed due to high bacteria counts after summer storms, he said.

"Obviously, when you pump from a sanitary to a storm sewer it goes to the outfalls," Salci said Tuesday.

"That's why I have been harping on infrastructure," said the mayor, who made sewer replacement a campaign issue in 2003 and 2006.

He said he was surprised when other politicians said they weren't aware it was going on.

"I don't know what they don't know," he said.

Niagara Falls pumped 11 million litres of sanitary sewage into the Niagara River, Welland River and a creek on the city's west side, following a major storm Dec. 1, last year. It was a combination of sanitary sewage and water from areas where rainwater gets into the sewers intended to take human waste to treatment plants.

There were five other similar incidents since July 2004.

When sewers get backed up, the immediate risk is it will cause basement flooding. To relieve the pressure on the sanitary sewers, city workers pump the sewage into storm sewers, which empty directly into the rivers.

When Osprey reported several examples of the ongoing problem, several councillors said they knew sanitary sewage was a problem during storms over the years, but politicians have focused their attention on helping homeowners who have had sewage flood their basements.

"Nobody thought to ask the followup question, further down the line, where does the storm sewer go?"Coun. Janice Wing said.

Pumping sewage from a sanitary sewer into a storm sewer is the "lesser of two evils," municipal works director Ed Dujlovic told council Monday.

Ontario's environment ministry and public health departments agree it's better to pump sewage into waterways than to have it back up in basements, Dujlovic said.

There have been numerous reports over the years that have referred to the practice of emergency pumping, he said.

"There has been quite a bit of information to the council over the years."

But the reports often use technical language. For example, a Sept. 19, 2005 report described the city's response to a heavy rainstorm, Aug. 31. Pump crews were sent to the Kalar Road area "to provide relief to the sanitary sewers..."

"Pump crews relieved the sanitary sewer in the Lexington Court area by pumping excess sanitary sewer flow to the local storm sewer."

A Jan. 23, 2006 report about splitting the $20-million cost for a new treatment facility with regional council also mentions the practice. The report referred to 425,000 cubic metres of combined sewer overflow "being discharged on an annual basis to the Niagara River."

Staff reports have hindered politicians' understanding of the situation, said Wing.

"If they had phrased it differently, we would have caught it. We didn't catch the full implications of it. They could have spelled it out differently," Wing said.

Part of the municipal works department's response will be a report for council that explains the terminology, history and function of the city's sewer system.

"Let's call it Sewer 101," Dujlovic said. "They may simply have not understood some of the terminology."
ID- 380533