Sewage dumps, like Montreal's, happen here more than you'd think

Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the City of Montreal began dumping 8 billion litres of untreated sewage into the St. Lawrence River, so that the city could do maintenance work on underground infrastructure.

The dumping had been delayed until the city could get the go ahead from the federalMinister of Environment.

The outrage over the dump has been widespread. But according to critics, this kind of thing happens all too often.

Elaine MacDonald is a senior scientist with Ecojustice. She has helped write a number of reports on waste water pollution in Canadian cities. She was in our Toronto studio.

• The Great Lakes Sewage Report Card (2013)

This segment was produced by The Current's Sujata Berry.